A Recollection of Something that Never Happened
by Denim Jean
Summary: Shun and the other Saints come back after their training only to realise that the competition organized by Saori wasn't exactly as they had envisioned, including Ikki's new personality and a mysterious guest singer called Mare. Apparently, she knows how to fight although she constantly denies it. But she's got a mission of her own which might collide against theirs. OC/Shun
1. Chapter 1

**A Recollection of Something that Never Happened**

**By Denim Jean**

* * *

**Summary**: Shun and the other Saints come back after their training only to realise that the competition organized by Saori wasn't exactly as they had envisioned, including a mysterious guest/singer/fighter called Mare. She's got a mission of her own which might collide against theirs. OC/Shun

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Saint Seiya. I only own my OC, Mare.

* * *

**Chapter 1: Fruilure**

Unparalleled awe filled the air. The wowed crowd, after a brief moment of complete silence due to the greatest of amazements, became instantly mad with joy and excitement. It was the wildest audience that the Coliseum had ever hosted, and the people were joyfully yelling in the semidarkness of the grandstand, acclaiming a singing solo performed by a young lady with dark hair and purple eyes.

"Amazing!"

"OMG! Your voice is so heavenly!"

"One more song! Please!"

"We love youuu!"

This was meant to be a halftime brief singing show, but soon it was obvious that it was more than that. That powerful voice could be second to no one, to no other show, display or contest…

Speaking of which, the contest between the Bronze Saints was halfway through already. The winner would get the most powerful golden armour ever, and the delicate and beautiful Saori, the purple-head heir of the Foundation, would personally hand it over to the winner. However, these brave warriors would have to fight until the very end to get it, if necessary. Right at that moment, it was halftime and some sort of show was put on. The Coliseum was full of people cheering like never before. Saori thought that an interlude would entertain the audience a bit further and diminish any potential worries as regards the well-being of the Bronze Saints who had got hurt during the fight – and, by the Gods, it was working!

"One more song! One more song! One more song!..."

The audience insisted in unison and the young singer felt obliged to comply. Her voice felt like satin in the listeners' ears as she opened her delicate mouth again to sing another song. Goosebumps could be felt not only on their skins, but also in their souls – should these have a skin, of course.

That strong voice, dazzling, beautifully imposing like the sun at dawn, and yet with such an unparalleled delicacy…

Even the Bronze Saints who had not yet fought – but were wearing their respective armours anyway – and who were waiting for their turn to go up the stage and fight were intensely listening to her mellow, sweet voice with awe. The audience was obviously unable to notice it, but the Saints did for sure. They felt a great source of energy springing from her. It was as if her aura was magnified by the singing – and it certainly didn't quite match her complexion: a young, slim and not really well-built woman. They were aware that she was keeping fit, but she wasn't as well-built as a warrior. Her clothes were rather like a cowgirl's: long, light blue jeans, brown boots and a short-sleeved, red-and-white-striped blouse which revealed a suggestive, low neckline and part of her waist.

"Who is she?" Hyoga, the blue-eyed, blonde wonder-boy, asked whispering half curious, half threatened.

"I don't know." Shun, the adorable, green-eyed, green-haired Saint, answered. "I just knew there would be some kind of interlude, but I would've never imagined this."

"I think we should inquire about her." Shiryu, the mighty Dragon, added with concern in his voice. "This aura is not normal for a young girl like her. Something's going on."

"Do you think she's a Bronze Saint and we don't know yet?" Shun asked rather innocently, not wanting to believe what he was saying.

"No idea." Hyoga answered hesitating. "A girl, a Saint?"

"There's one more important question than that, I think." Seiya, the brown-haired Pegasus, asked suspiciously.

"Which is it?" Shiryu asked with curiosity.

"Saori planned all this. Our training. The competition. The interlude…" And Seiya finally asked the rest of the Saints present: "Did Saori know about her powerful aura?"

No one dared to speak any further, but their thoughts silently agreed upon the matter, of course.

In the meantime, Saori was presiding the event from up top of a large staircase, sitting on a golden throne and looking rather stern. She only smiled briefly when the young singer finished her performance and then she clapped her hands like the rest of the audience. When the end of the interlude was announced on the speakerphones, the mysterious young lady descended from the stage with the glory, beauty and brevity of a shooting star – and, like a long-longed wish, she swiftly vanished into the shadows as though she had never been there.

"Where is she going?!" Hyoga asked.

"Let's find out." Shun said as he tried to get closer, but he was too late.

The guys ran right behind him and his rattling chains. When he crossed the threshold into the dark alley into which she had entered, she could no longer be seen. She had really vanished. That was her stardust.

"She's gone…" Shun whispered rather appalled as soon as the rest of the guys came closer. They found themselves in shock, too.

"Saori is behind this… I'm sure." Seiya concluded.

* * *

One combat followed the next, one after the other, never failing to provide amusement and entertainment to the audience before the Bronze Saints. But their blood and suffering never sated Saori, who appeared to be quite bored then. Some members of the audience had needed medical assistance due to the psychological harshness of the combats and had to leave altogether. This was not the case of the mysterious female singer, though. She was witnessing the cruel performance from a remote dark alley somewhere amongst the audience with a look of genuine concern on her face. Her arms were crossed in disapproval.

"To this moment," She thought with care and determination. "I still don't know why I came. I was careless. This competition is affecting me more than I thought. I shouldn't have come." She bit her lower lip and frowned as she stared at both Seiya and Shiryu finish off their fight. Seiya had won. "If only Saori hadn't pushed me to do it! If only she hadn't…"

"And now, Shun and Jabu will be fighting each other!" The speakerphones suddenly announced rather joyfully as soon as the stage was deserted again.

"Good Gods!" She thought as she took a step into the light. Now she could be seen, but she didn't care. "How long is this going to last?"

Out of the blue, the ladies from the audience started going crazy. Just as if they were in a pop concert, they stood up and yelled in ecstasy when they saw Shun go up the stage. Some of them blushed revealingly and some proclaimed they loved him.

"Oh, come on!" She thought annoyed by that childish behaviour. She was getting nervous. "You must be kidding me!"

Shun just smiled at the audience like he always did, naively and never actually caring too much about those oestrogen-driven comments. Jabu was officially pissed off, because he had always considered himself to be a handsome guy.

"You probably should've become an actor, Shun!" Jabu shouted at him with too much pride. "That armour and those chains don't suit you."

Shun didn't answer. He knew it was useless. Jabu was a fool full of pride, completely unaware that that might put him in a dangerous position later on. Shun wanted to focus on fighting instead. At the end of the day, that's was the purpose of the event.

"Be careful, Shun." She thought worried as she leaned on the wall beside her and let her head also brush its surface delicately.

Jabu shot Shun a menacing glare and smirked. A couple of seconds later, he aimed at him but missed. Shun was too fast for him even though he was not trying his best. Suddenly, Shun chanced to look at the audience and spotted the mysterious singer in the distance.

"Oh, Gods!" She thought and gasped as she felt the weight of his eyes on hers. "He's spotted me…"

"She's there!" He thought as if a star had ignited in the darkness of the universe. "The expression on her face is so different from Saori's or the rest of the audience, so worried…" He realised immediately. It positively shocked him. He wondered what was actually going on.

Then, Jabu noticed Shun was no longer paying attention to him and got mad. He propelled himself to Shun and tried to bring him down, but it was no use. Shun could perfectly avoid him. At one point, Jabu was so careless that he slipped and fell in a very comic way. Unexpected as it was, the audience burst in a fit of laughter due to the ridicule he had put himself in.

Shun chanced to look back at his beloved mysterious singer with a broad smile on his face. What had just happened really felt like a comic relief, so much so that even she was trying her best not to laugh out loud, but she couldn't help it. She just couldn't. It was too funny. A small tear even streamed down one of her cheeks.

"Good!" Shun thought happily while he was staring at her intensely. "She was genuinely worried a few seconds ago, but now she's smiling and laughing. She looks jovial and completely normal to me. A normal girl… I don't think she's part of an evil plot on behalf of Saori like the rest of the guys think… although she could still be a Bronze Saint like us…"

But an explosion broke his trail of thought. Quite near the golden armour, a small army of Black Saints appeared and a malignant fit of laughter filled the air. Some light bulbs exploded and the atmosphere became darker. The people of the audience surrendered to panic and started shouting and crying. Most of them fled to the exit. In the meantime, the man who was responsible of all this mess, still hiding in the darkness, spoke to Shun and the other Bronze Saints thus:

"So, there you are… My dreaded enemies, I shall crush you under my feet." He sounded as though he was having fun, in a dark, mysterious way. "Today we meet again and for the last time, I'm afraid."

Shun's chains reacted violently to this unknown, menacing presence. They were able to detect a threat by waving alarmingly and, therefore, warn their owner. He was having a hard time trying to control them.

"Shun, what's going on?" Hyoga asked him.

"The chains can detect any threat and…" He managed to answer as little drops of sweat started to flow down his temples due to the effort. "the stronger the threat is, the greater is their distress."

"This must be an amazingly powerful enemy, then." Shiryu concluded seriously.

"Who are you?" Seiya asked behemently.

Suddenly, the chains decided to attack their mysterious opponent once and for all. They got hold of his wrist and forearm and pulled his arm slowly into the light, so that the rest of the Bronze Saints could see him properly. But they never expected that to happen: his enemy was Ikki, Shun's older brother, a well-built young man with blue hair and an almost magical savoir-faire attitude.

"Ikki?" Shun asked amazed but softly. "Is that you?"

The air became suddenly colder. Ikki never answered Shun's question – he could only laugh that evil laugh which made hairs stand on end. As soon as he finished, he went on telling them what the hell he was about to do: he had actually been summoned to take part in the competition like the lot of them, but he had decided to kill them all and take the gold armour instead. His training had made him become a completely different person. He was no longer the loving elder brother he had been before.

Then, Saori stood up and tried to talk sense into him – as if sending those young boys to every corner of the world, training them to become warriors and forcing them to fight each other in that ruthless competition which her grandfather had orchestrated a few years ago was sensible in any way. Ikki made fun of her, of course, but none of the Bronze Saints said anything to defend her – she had abused them too many times before and yet Saori never displayed either shame or remorse, as if she had her perfectly logic reasons to be cruel to them. Their relationship was more complex than it seemed at first sight.

Things were getting nastier by the minute and, luckily, the vast majority of the audience had already left the building, except for the mysterious singer. Shun was obviously worried about her and he tried to spot her from the corner of his eyes, to check on her and see if she was OK – and there she was, in the same spot, more unwilling rather than unable to leave the building, with an anxious but rather serious expression on her face. Anyone could've thought she was putting on a brave face, but she wasn't. There was something the matter with her.

"What the hell is she doing there still?" Shun thought genuinely worrying about her.

"What are you looking at, Shun?" Ikki naughtily asked his little brother. "Are you concerned about something?"

"Ikki, why do you want to kill us all and steal the golden armour?" Shun asked him, never doubting for a second that that man in front of him was his dear old elder brother and that he would never hurt him.

"Do you really think you can fool me, lil bro?" Ikki chuckled and smirked as he diverted his eyes from the Bronze Saints to the grandstand, where the young singer was standing and watching the scene from afar.

He just whistled briefly and, in a fraction of a second, a Black Saint under his command was menacingly behind her.

"No!" Shun yelled.

She was not afraid. Impressed, maybe. But not scared. She had turned her head around slowly to face him, quite defiantly by the way, but that Black Saint had no intention whatsoever to wait for her to react in any way. Her muscles were tense already and her fists, clenched, side by side of her body.

"No? Why should you care, bro?" Ikki asked faking his wonder. "Get her." He commanded his minion.

"No! Stop!" Shun shouted as if he had lost it.

He turned around to see what was happening to her. He even released his brother and aimed to shoot his chains towards her, to form a shield around her to protect her. But the chains arrived too late: the Black Saint was trying to get hold of her with a bold, naughty look on his face, but she had swiftly jumped and was already flying above his shoulders when Shun's chains tried to hug the space where she had previously been. All the witnesses held their breath instantaneously, but they gasped in awe as soon as she kicked the back of the Black Saint's head and propelled him towards the nearest seats, destroying them and everything that his body found in its trajectory. She just landed in style on the floor, as if she had just done a twirl like a professional ice-skater, legs slightly apart and a fancy, daring pose, smirk included. Her dark hair was flying around her, still under the effects twirl, but soon it remained still, like her. Her aura was intense once more, like before, when she was singing so heavenly.

Shun was not the only one whose eyebrow was shot upwards in a sign of amazement and wonder. That Black Saint was lying on a row of destroyed seats a few feet below, complaining about how much it had hurt, trying hard to stand up and failing at it quite noisily and shamefully. Eventually, he passed out.

"Wow." Ikki finally said quite flatly, but that was his actual genuine way to express true amazement. "You must be… a Bronze Saint…" He concluded, partly fearing her answer, staring at her as if she was a rare, extinct bird.

Then, she just stared back at him, smirked naughtily, turned around, gave him the middle finger from above her shoulder and left walking as leisurely as she could. Everyone stood frozen and didn't know what to do next. She had gone, like before – but she was there, somewhere. Suddenly, Ikki broke the silence.

"Sassy… I _really_ like her." He said with a smirk on his face. "When we were little, you never told us there would be a girl Saint, Saori."

All of a sudden, that comment triggered lots of memories. They all remembered their experiences in the orphanage a few years ago, before they left to every corner of the world to train and get their respective Bronze armours, how Saori had abused them, how they were treated like scum by her and how her grandfather had made them feel 'grateful' now that they had something in their lives to look forward to.

"There was no girl amongst us back then." Hyoga pointed out. "How come could it be possible?"

"No, there wasn't any girl back then." Saori answered swiftly, angrily. "She's not a Bronze Saint as you think."

"But she's knocked out that Black Saint with just one kick!" Shiryu complained, not believing a single word she had just uttered. "And she wasn't even wearing armour! I'm sorry, but I'm not buying it."

"Shiryu is right!" Seiya exclaimed. "Her aura is as powerful as any of ours! Who is she, Saori? You hired her to sing in the interlude, right? You must know who she is!"

"Saori, please," Shun gently pleaded her. His eyes were kind and forgiving on her. "tell us who she is. Please."

"Shun… She…" Saori began to speak quite sadly then. "I can't tell you. Not now. Not yet, at least."

"Come on, Saori!" Seiya insisted. "Why do you keep this information like a secret?"

"Don't ask me." Saori answered sternly. "You should ask _her_. She knows how to handle guys like you."

"What th-…?!" Seiya exclaimed.

Ikki laughed naughtily and decided to interrupt.

"OK, look… I'm really enjoying this soap opera of yours, but…" He said quite amused by the scene before him. "I should get going. I'm taking the golden armour with me. Come and get it from me, if you dare. I'll be on the island I was trained, and I expect you to come and fight against me in three days." Having said this, he saluted them goodbye and the other Black Saints took the golden armour with them. "You can even bring her with you, if you can handle _her_, of course!" With this, he laughed wholeheartedly and left in a sudden, bright, golden blast of fire.

A big cloud of smoke filled the air and they started to cough.

* * *

A few hours later, the evening colours of the sky filled the atmosphere by the beach, where a bunch of kids were playing football, shouting, cheering and laughing, sometimes falling on the sand and arguing with each other. She was sitting on a stone bench on her own, sighing and staring at the depths of the sea.

"Destiny must be toying with me. Why here?" She asked herself quite sadly as the sea breeze softly combed her hair. Then she frowned as if she was angry at herself. "Why this time? Why…? I won't be able to stand this for a long time. I must find what's wrong, solve it and go back home asap." Her thoughts were interrupted because she felt a presence around her. Like a cat sensing a threat, she got stiff. "Oh-oh!... It's _him_. Now what? What should I do now?"

It was Shun. His curiosity was driving him insane – and he wasn't the only one. The rest of the guys were desperate to know who the hell she was, especially after all that Saori had told them (well, it was what she kept refusing to tell them what was driving them insane). On top of that, Ikki was also in a strange, unexplainable mood. He seemed to have changed a great deal, to the point of wishing them dead apparently. He had stolen the golden armour and defied them to go on a deadly quest. That's why for the time being they decided to give the whole competition thing a break and be friends – they even planned to split up that evening and try to spot that mysterious girl. They wanted some damn answers.

"She's chilling out here, on the beach." Shun thought naively. She was _not_ chilling out, on the contrary. "Should I spy on her or should I just play it cool and make a move?"

"He's spying on me. _Great_." She thought with weariness. "No wonder. After what I've done today! Why am I so rash and stupid sometimes?" She was angrier at herself than at him or anyone else.

In the meantime, Shun had his doubts. He was just staring at her back and her gorgeous hair floating around her from behind a tree. Soon she noticed Shun's childish hesitation from afar and smiled at herself, with all the best intentions.

"OK, screw it! I definitely feel naughty today!" She thought suddenly amused by this new situation. She had a brilliant idea: she took a coin out of a pocket of her jeans and licked her lips once. She closed her eyes as she thought this: "Heads… I am bold and face him directly. Tails… I run away and make him get lost trying to chase me. And probably mess up with him." So she tossed the shining coin in the air and in a heartbeat she got the coin again on her hands. She bit her lips and checked the result.

In the meantime, Shun was eyeing suspiciously at her, wondering what she was actually doing with that coin. He raised an eyebrow at her, but then she suddenly turned around and stared directly at him as if she knew he had been there all along – which she had, but he didn't know that. He swallowed hard as she raised a naughty eyebrow at him, smirked and then chuckled almost silently. Her teeth were perfect, as of made out of porcelain or pearls. He froze: it was the most beautiful face he had ever seen. Next, she just stood up, facing him daringly, and blew a kiss to him and waved goodbye flirtatiously with her long piano-player fingers. Before he knew it, she was hopelessly running away from him.

"What the hell has just happened?" Shun asked himself, completely at a loss.

A bunch of kids, the ones who had been playing football on the beach a few minutes ago, had gathered around Shun, staring at him inquisitively. Not until some precious seconds had gone by that he noticed their piercing stares on him.

"Hey! What are you looking at?" He asked rather innocently.

"Why aren't you chasing her? You're losing her, you moron." One of the youngest said, rather annoyed by the way.

"What?!" He exclaimed trying not to blush.

"You're a bit slow to be a Bronze Saint, you know that?" Another told him as if he was bothered by his ineptitude as a spy.

"How do you know I'm a Bronze Saint?!" Shun asked amazed.

"Everyone knows. We've watched the competition earlier today." The first one said.

"Most of them were impressive, but since your fight got interrupted I'm not sure if you make the grade, honestly." Another one added.

"His chain couldn't stop the guy who stole the golden armour, silly! He couldn't even reach out and save that girl when that Black Saint attacked her! He's not fit for this!" That kid recollected the facts as he had seen them on TV.

"Besides, he's the one who cries over nothing…"

"Hey!" Shun tried to complain, but it was useless.

"And now you lost sight of her. Deal with it, crybaby."

"To think that my sister is mad about you! I'm gonna tell on you!"

Shun just froze. This whole thing was too surreal to be true. That dream girl spotting him and mocking him before he could do anything about it. Later, a bunch of kids criticising him rather constructively – but ruthlessly, nonetheless. The world was falling apart in a quite odd way: from being an acclaimed, respectable Bronze Saint to a complete idiot in a couple of hours' time.

"I've got no time for this!" Shun exclaimed rather pissed off, whispering and frowning, and then he left and ran after her.

He could still see her in that sea of people ahead of him, who were walking aimlessly in the promenade with no care in the world. Suddenly, she turned left at a corner and dived into the narrow, picturesque, oldest streets of the city. She was obviously heading to the church, which wasn't far away. Luckily for him, he could run very fast and could follow her for quite a while. Once he reached the church's square, he saw her.

Right at the bottom of the stone stairs, an old man was delightfully playing classical music on his set of half-full, half-empty glasses and crystal cups. She smiled at him as she flew past him. Then, she was looking up in the melting red sky, to the bell tower of the church darkening as the sun said good night, and then she saw Shun staring at her and ran up the stone stairs, her hair waving joyfully right behind her. The music made the chasing all the more surreal but somehow addictive. Her body in motion made him feel as if she was soaring over the stone tiles, unreachable like a ghost, impossible to catch like flowing water, unattainable like a goddess.

Breath was starting to fail both of them, but that meant nothing. The chase had to go on. She loved playing games. He just couldn't let her go.

More and more narrow streets full of people chatting in the city centre; full of kids playing, laughing and cheering; full of old people walking unbearably slowly; full of excuse-mes, sorries and make-ways. Good Gods, even a cart full of fruit! She ran past it, came back for a second, got a watermelon, paid it and ran away again. Shun was running after her and couldn't believe what she was doing. She was carrying the watermelon as if it were a rugby ball!

At one point, she turned right on a corner. Shun was following her quite closely. As soon as he also had turned right on that same corner, he fell down on the floor due to that damned watermelon of hers. He even accidentally broke it and got horrible red stains all over his white trousers. She was standing there, smirking at him defiantly, and started running away again.

"You're so dumb, man. She did it on purpose!" One of the kids from the beach said.

"You! You're here?!" Shun asked trying to get rid of that bloody watermelon. In fact, all those kids were there.

"She put the watermelon right there to make you fall – and you fell for it."

"What are you doing here?" Shun asked astonished.

"We've been following both of you." One said.

"Everyone in town knows about you chasing that girl." Another added joyfully.

"Gossip spreads fast here, I see." Shun concluded rather annoyed.

"Faster than you can run, _Crybaby_ Saint." One of the kids mocked him and the rest just started laughing at him.

"I can't believe this is really happening to me!" Shun thought as he got up and started running after her again.

* * *

A few hours later, it was completely dark and Shun decided to come back to the Foundation. It was not his home, but it was his place to stay since he had come back from his training in the Isle of Andromeda. The rest of the guys also lived there, under the same roof as Saori, of course, which made things a bit difficult.

He opened the front door and the rest of the guys greeted him, although they didn't expect to see him like that: his current state was…

"Ridiculous! You look ridiculous!" Seiya said, trying hard not to laugh. "You're covered in fruit juice!"

"You do smell like different types of fruit, yeah." Hyoga added raising an eyebrow at him.

"You've also got seeds all over your shirt and trousers." Shiryu told him not meaning any harm, although an accidental smile was drawn on his lips. "What the hell has happened to you?"

"I don't wanna talk about this." Shun answered as neutrally as he could, trying to hold back his frustration – the tears. "I desperately need a shower…" He whispered as he walked past them. "… and some dignity." He thought hopelessly.

He left the entrance hall and went straight to the shower in his room. As he was leaving, he could listen as Saori entered the hall and was telling the guys the town's gossip, i.e. his stupidity and her boldness. But he couldn't care less then. He needed some peace, get a shower and think about what to do. One thing was for sure: he would find her again and speak with her.

"If she insists on playing tricks on me," He thought a few minutes later, with determination as he got out of the shower, with a towel around his hips and using another one to dry his beautiful green hair. "… at least I want to know her name."

* * *

On the next day, the sun was shining bright, high and mighty over their heads. Saori decided to gather all the Bronze Saints in the Coliseum and give a speech. The competition had been cancelled for obvious reasons and she merely wished them good luck in their mission, i.e. getting back the golden armour from Ikki's evil grasp.

All the guys, all of them wearing their respective armours, expected to see the mysterious girl – and maybe challenge her to fight –, but she wasn't there. Seiya even asked Saori where she was. All their eyes glowed in anticipation, especially Shun's.

"I told you: she's not a Bronze Saint. That's why she's not here." She said mildly annoyed.

"But she's very strong, agile, fast and bold!" Shiryu added complaining. "Even Ikki was astonished to see her defeat one of his Black Saints!"

"Her aura is as powerful as any of ours!" Seiya insisted rightfully. "She could be a great ally!"

"You're right, Seiya." Hyoga agreed. "I'm not exactly thrilled to have a woman on board, but we might need her."

"You forget this is a mission for you only. She's not a Saint, which means she's got no armour like each of you, no shield, no weapons, no…" Saori tried to reason with them, but it was getting thornier than she thought. It was obvious they didn't want to listen to her excuses. The loaded gun that was their common past didn't help either. In their eyes, that mysterious girl was more valuable, more attractive in every sense of the word… than herself. "Look, leave her alone and focus on your mission. Or else you won't fulfil the purpose assigned to you by my grandfather. Remember you owe everything to him. Everything. You were orphans, left to die in the streets. My grandfather gave you a home and a purpose in life. Don't let him down. You wouldn't like that, would you? Don't fail your destiny."

They hated when she spoke as if she was a queen, a prophet or something of the sort. Her sin was not being sensitive to anyone else but herself and her deceased grandfather. But basically the fact that she never stopped acting like a spoiled little brat didn't help to have a better opinion of her either. Her beautiful face and godly purple hair were the only spotless things about her that made anyone think of her in heavenly terms; however, the second she opened her mouth to speak she couldn't help but displaying her self-assigned superiority.

Silence fell and the Bronze Saints didn't dare to say anything further.

"Good." Saori concluded. "Now get ready and go on this holy quest. You have two days left, remember?"

Then, she left the Coliseum. A few minutes after her, so did the guys. Shun felt blue.

"Hey, are you coming, Shun?" Hyoga asked him.

"I'll be there in a minute. I'll catch you, don't worry." Shun said rather casually.

"Hey, leave him alone! He needs some minutes to come to terms with his _fruilure_ from yesterday…" Seiya mocked him. He meant to say the word _failure_, of course, but it was so much fun mocking Shun using the word _fruit_ in every single conversation…

"Seiya!" Shun complained.

They left the Coliseum giggling. Shun, who stayed behind, couldn't believe it.

It was a glorious midday. The sun was shining too brightly in this late spring day. Shun leaned on the exterior walls of the Coliseum as he watched them go, making merry as if their impending fate wasn't as dark and dangerous as it actually was. They might not come back alive – and those who eventually would would have changed beyond recognition. He sighed aimlessly. He hated the idea of fighting in general, but this time he would have to fight against his own brother until one of them would die.

"Honestly," He thought feeling blue. "I'd rather kill myself if it meant that my brother was the same guy he was before this whole crap of mission of becoming Bronze Saints fell on our laps."

Unexpectedly, Shun's chains noticed something was going on nearby. He was startled, but their initial mild reaction became an uncontrollable frenzy in a couple of seconds and, before he knew it, the chains pulled him where they wanted to go: close to the nearest access to the beach, there was this long breakwater, at the end of which there were the same bunch of kids and… her.

The sea was quite calm that day and the mellow sound of its sweet waves filled the air. It was one of those glorious days in which you feel like setting everything aside and enjoy life as it is, simply and leisurely. The kids and she were giggling and having fun. The whole picture made Shun feel instantaneously happy, even though he was not part of it. Part of him was telling him that all that had ever mattered was family and that he should stop being a Saint altogether – and yet he couldn't: he couldn't quit knowing that something nasty had happened to his brother. He had to do something – and he had to be a Saint to do it. Then, he sighed as if he had been locked out of paradise.

As Shun was getting closer to them, he could listen to her voice singing a lovely song to the kids.

"I'd be listening to her all night and day." Shun thought lovingly.

Then he retracted his chains just in case. He didn't want to appear hostile. As soon as he had done so, he started coming closer to them. He realised that she hadn't noticed that he was coming closer yet – oh, but those annoying kids did. Naturally, they immediately warned her.

"What?!" She exclaimed in panic as she turned around to see Shun. "Oh, bugger…"

"You know what?" Shun thought quite happily. "She just can't run from this one. It seems I'm lucky today!"

Suddenly, the kids wanted to put a brave face and shielded her, standing in front of her with their arms extended and their eyebrows frowning, which was completely unnecessary but still adorable. But it worked. Shun didn't dare to take one step forward, although those kids would never be a threat for him.

"Thanks, but…" She lovingly told them. "You don't need to do this, you know."

As easy as that, they let her take over. They made way for her and let her come closer to Shun. Her warm expression on her face displayed her confidence, so much so that Shun couldn't help but becoming suddenly nervous. As she took some steps in his direction, he started feeling scared, even.

"How come can se be so calm and sure of herself?" He thought. "Anyone in my shoes would be furious with her, trying to force her to speak out as regards her sassy behaviour and her amazing physical abilities. Isn't she expecting me to speak thus to her? Does she even care whether I do so?"

"I might be wrong, but…" She began speaking to him. "I think you're here to speak with me, right?"

"You're right." Shun answered dryly.

"Good." She said smiling broadly. He pose was strikingly daring, a lot more than he was. She was obviously one of a kind. "OK, kids, you can go now." She told them seriously.

"What?!" One exclaimed as if hurt.

"No! We won't leave you alone with him!" Another said as if he was some sort of Prince Charming.

"Do you really think he can do anything to me?" She asked giggling, as if stating the obvious.

They shut up and stared at both young adults for a couple of seconds. The kids already believed that he was dumb and a good-for-nothing.

"She's right. Come on, let's go." One of them concluded seriously. And then they fled in the blink of an eye.

"I can't believe this!" Shun exclaimed once they were gone, offended.

"Hey, don't get mad at me!" She tried to defend herself, but she as calm. "I just took advantage of their opinion on you."

"Which, by the way, you don't have anything to do with, right?" He asked rather sarcastically.

"I'm just going to acknowledge half the blame, luv." She giggled briefly and eyed him with certain naughty intentions. "The other half is yours, like it or not."

He couldn't answer back to that. She was right.

"If you hadn't run away from me,…" He begun.

"Yeah,…" She cut him abruptly. "if I hadn't run away and if I hadn't tantalised you, you would've… what?" She was speaking quite fast. Sometimes she didn't have enough patience.

"I wanted to talk to you yesterday." He said seriously.

"Hmmm…" She sighed hesitating. Then, she went on serious as hell: "I may listen to you, but that doesn't mean I need to give you any answers. I don't owe you anything."

"You're rough now. How come?" He asked because he was both hurt and curious.

"OK, OK… I'm sorry. I have a tendency to that." She said giving in. Then, she whispered to herself: "I really need to work on that… Anyway." She sighed and looked straight at him. "Shoot. You can ask me anything, come on."

"Good." He said although he was not really convinced about it. "First, the obvious. Who are you? What's your name?"

"My name is Mare." She answered calming down.

"What do you do? I mean, we were wondering whether you're a Saint like us or…"

"No, Gods, no!" She swiftly answered quite defiantly. "I'm… just… you know, a singer, but…" She finished the sentence hesitating and he noticed it. She was trying to hide something.

"What you did in the Coliseum before you left wasn't something a singer would do, Mare." He insisted softly. He didn't want to push her too much. She diverted her eyes from him for the first time and she didn't dare to look back at him. "No. Don't."

"Don't what?"

"Your eyes. You want to escape this, don't you? Don't lie to me."

"What possible reason can I have to lie to you?"

"Good, so look at me in the eye and tell me who you are…" He said this trying to convince her as he took a step forward towards her. "Besides a singer, of course." His voice was warm and she silently thanked him for that. The same words using a different attitude would've felt absolutely aggressive.

"I'm a… I like fighting. I've had my training, but I'm no Saint. That's all." She said nervously, trying hard to keep the eye contact as he demanded. He knew it wasn't that all. She kicked a Black Saint's ass, for the Gods' sake!

"Why are you so nervous?" He asked instead.

"Look, I think we should call it a day, OK?" She was feeling more nervous as time went by. She even took a step backwards.

"Are you…? Don't be scared of me, please. I won't…" He said that with genuine concern for her. "… hurt you."

As he said so, he even intuitively shot his right arm towards her, with the palm of his hand open, gently extended to her as if offering her to dance with him. Nonetheless, the chain accidentally took life of its own and flew off his forearm in her direction. The chain hugged her waist as she unconsciously raised her arms aimlessly around her. Eventually, it gently pulled her towards Shun until he could hold her by her waist with both his hands. She gasped when her body softly collided with his. It was as if the chain ached to touch her, to bring her to him. Both of them blushed.

"What are you doing?" She asked defiantly, putting her hands on his chest with fear and doubt. "Tell your chain to leave me alone!"

"Has it hurt you?" He whispered worried like hell as he managed to set her free. She immediately took a couple of steps backwards.

"I just… knew someone would eventually come around and ask me a bunch of personal questions… Especially after what I did. You saw it." She answered defiantly, progressively raising the volume of her voice. "But I decided to stay, do the right thing, and try to be of some help if necessary, even though I dislike the idea. You ask me why I'm nervous? OF COURSE I'M NERVOUS! _YOU_ MAKE ME NERVOUS!"

Her outburst of nervousness made Shun fall silent and stare at her speechless. What could he actually expect from her?

"What was I thinking?" He thought as he felt a cold sweat flow in his whole body. "She witnessed the whole thing, Ikki's threat and challenge included. She might be thinking I'm here to take her away with me… like it or not. Is that the reason why she ran away from me yesterday? She just didn't wanna die in this stupid mission? Now she thinks she should help us, for the greater good, although it's not her job. Good Gods, I just wanted to meet her. That's all. But I'm not gonna ask her to come with us and retrieve the golden armour. I never wanted to, for starters. I can spare her the pain… and a certain death. The guys are crazy. She could help us, of course, but I won't let her. Those kids love her… I won't let this happen to her." He closed his eyes and sighed.

"I'm sassy. That's how I deal with stuff when I'm nervous." She whispered after a few seconds.

"_Just_… I'm awfully sorry. Forget I was here." He said turning around and walking away.

"What?" Mare asked at a loss. She couldn't believe he was leaving.

Suddenly, he turned around to get a last glimpse of her and, with all the love and tenderness in the world, spoke thus:

"It was nice meeting you…"

His eyes were glowing as if he would never see her again. She noticed something was wrong and never felt as powerless as she was then. He went on walking until he disappeared from her sight.

"I wonder if he's seen through me…" She whispered to herself with desperation. "It's impossible that he knows! Unless… Oh no! Did Saori spill the beans without my consent?"

* * *

That same evening, it was raining cats and dogs all over the city, but that didn't prevent Mare from coming to the Foundation and ask for Saori. She kept a low profile, just in case. She didn't want to be spotted by any of the guys. Once she was led into a small library room and left on her own waiting for Saori, she sat on a purple chaise longue and her mind wandered to Shun, whether he would be near right then, what he thought of her, what he meant by walking away the way he did that afternoon, with that smile and tenderness. She was puzzled by a young man – and that hardly ever happened to her.

"Mare," Saori called her attention from the door. She was beyond amazed by her visit. "what are you doing here? Is something wrong?"

"Well, to be honest, I don't know." Mare replied a bit hopelessly as Saori came closer to her and sat beside her on the chaise longue. "I wanted to ask you something, if you don't mind."

"Sure, go ahead."

"Did you tell the Bronze Saints the truth about me?" Mare asked a bit naively, expecting Saori to tell her the truth about the matter. In the meantime, the storm outside was getting crazier by the minute.

"No, I didn't." Saori answered calmly. "I did what you said. I kept your secret. Why are you asking me this?"

"Shun was chasing me yesterday and a bit earlier today he…" Mare confessed almost whispering. "He wanted to talk to me, which is fine, but he's started asking too many personal questions. Then, his chain has got hold of me and pulled me towards him. I think the chain must've known… somehow. I've got nervous and I think I lost it. I thought I was ready for this, but now I know I'm not. Gods, help me… For a second I thought he'd ask me to enrol on their mission and help them get the golden armour back, but he _didn't_. That is odd. I was sure he would. And then, unexpectedly, he just… left."

"Do you want to go?" Saori asked her straightforwardly.

"I know I don't need to go there. My mission doesn't concern Ikki's goals directly. But I could go and help the guys."

"You don't need to help them, believe me." Saori said a bit darkly. "Can I share my thoughts with you?"

"I don't see why not." Mare answered serenely.

"You must trust me, since I was the first person you came to for help." Saori said sadly, as if she couldn't believe it.

"I do. I care about what you have to say." Mare stated, reaffirming what Saori had just said.

"OK, then trust me on this one:" Saori got serious as cancer as she stared directly into Mare's eyes and got hold of both her hands. "no matter what they say, don't go."

"Why not?" Mare asked surprised while the rain madly kept showering the windows.

"They're obsessed with you, do you know that?" Saori asked her concerned. "You would become a distraction. I think you should focus on your mission instead. You've got a huge burden to take care of already."

"If you wish it so, I will do as told." Mare replied as she stood up. "Then, I should get going, if you don't mind. Thanks for your advice."

"One more thing." Saori said swiftly and a bit desperately. She blushed a little even.

"Yes, Saori?" Mare asked her point-blank, wondering about what she would say.

"Stay here, please." Saori pledged as she stood up from the purple chaise longue with determination. "I might need protection and you are one of the few people I can trust. Will you do this for me? I know I might be a burden to you, but…"

"Don't worry, Saori. I'm honoured." Mare said smiling broadly and tenderly.

Mare made as if she was going away, but Saori extended her arm towards her and delicately touched her arm. A thunder shook the window glass.

"But you said you'd stay…" Saori said hesitatingly.

"You mean _now_?!" Mare asked amazed. "I thought you meant when the guys are gone."

"I swear I won't tell them you're here. No one will. Not even my servants. I have a huge guest room you can use. It's insulated, so you can train as much as you want. I'll instruct a special servant for you only, who will attend your every need. The Saints are leaving in a couple of days… After that, you could roam free. Besides, have you seen this awful storm? You can't go out now."

"Errr… Are you sure this will work? I don't like being caged." Mare told her frowning a bit.

"I tell you the guest room is huge and it will only be a couple of days!" Saori insisted.

Mare sighed and eventually agreed.

"I hope I won't be regretting this later." Mare thought with care.

"By the way," Saori added smiling. "I believe that what you did to Shun yesterday must've been fun… Everyone is talking about it ever since, especially the rest of the Saints. I still can't imagine how you managed to do it bearing in mind that you'll be his…"

"Yeah," Mare cut her sentence then, feeling quite tired about the issue. "I've heard about Shun's _fruilure_. Very original." She said rolling her eyes.

Mare was genuinely sick and tired of this whole gossiping piece of shit. She sighed silently. She knew why she had done it: because she was reckless and she just couldn't help being naughty and not thinking about the consequences.

Once Saori had shown her into her huge room, Mare wished her good night and closed the door behind her. It was completely dark outside, that dark, fearful, black-and-blue colour, and roaring thunders could be heard from time to time. She leaned her back and head against the door and gently closed her eyes as the light of a lightning illuminated the bed on which she'd sleep that night.

"I need to be more careful in the future…" She thought as she bit her lower lip feeling awfully guilty. "He must not know. At least for now."


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary**: Shun and the other Saints come back after their training only to realise that the competition organized by Saori wasn't exactly as they had envisioned, including a mysterious guest/singer/fighter called Mare. She's got a mission of her own which might collide against theirs. OC/Shun

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Saint Seiya. I only own my OC, Mare.

* * *

**Chapter 2: Touché**

The next morning, the sun didn't show up. The storm which had reigned the night was attempting to engulf the day and eventually succeeded at it. The fishermen didn't dare to set sail. No shop owners opened business that morning. The newsagents were closed. There was no one walking on the streets, not even a single dog or cat. Only sadness came out for a walk. The city became devoid of life.

Mare was staring at this depressing portrait of the greyest of mornings through the big windows of her new room, when suddenly she heard a noise and chatter coming from the corridor. Immediately she grew tense.

"What if…" She thought trying to control her desperation. "anyone accidentally opens the door to my room and spots me here? I shouldn't have accepted Saori's offering."

Soon the chatter faded away and Mare chilled out a bit. She found herself staring at the door and sweating over nothing.

"OK, Mare." She thought with care and determination. "You can do this. You can spend a couple of days here in this room without arising suspicion. Saori said the room was insulated and that I could train or anything, that not a sound would be heard. I shan't be disrupted." Then, she sighed a long sigh and decided to do something to pass the time. "I could sing for a while. It usually calms me down…"

Some precious minutes went by and Mare could feel the good numbing sensation that her concentration on singing produced in her brain. This sedative feeling freely flowed within her and set her free from her worries.

Then, Saori entered her room and greeted her.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, Mare." Saori apologised. She was looking quite agitated, although she was trying hard to conceal it. "I need to talk to you. Something has happened."

"What's the matter?" Mare asked a bit worried.

"It's about the guys… I mean, the Bronze Saints." Saori never referred to them as 'the guys', she had accidentally picked it up from Mare, who was so casual when speaking.

"What about them?"

"They want to devote all their time left before they part focusing on tracking you down."

"What?! Shouldn't they be getting ready to fight, training together, devising different plans to attack Ikki, or try to figure out his weak spots… or anything like that? There's only two days left! They're gonna get killed! Are they crazy or what?!"

"That's what I've told them this morning, but they won't listen to me. I haven't got your charisma or strength…" She hesitated. "They love you." She actually meant to say that they loved her more than herself, but her pride didn't let her say that, although she was trying hard to make some progress – or else the Saints would never listen to her.

"They… WHAT?!" Mare blushed. She honestly thought she'd got more sass than anything – but charisma? Yeah, right... Whatever.

"You've got to come out and talk sense to them." Saori insisted. "At least Shun won't need much convincing: he's not really looking forward to find you. He's been acting strange ever since yesterday afternoon. I don't know why."

"No, Saori! I'm not gonna do this! I can't." Mare fought back with words.

"Mare, please…" Saori begged.

"Saori, no. You said I'd be safe for these two days." Mare said defiantly. "Please, stop playing with me."

"I'm not playing with you. I'm deadly serious." Saori looked as if she'd lost the ace up her sleeve.

"Did you lie to me?" Mare asked straightforwardly.

"No, I didn't." Saori replied with true honesty.

"Are you sure?" Mare sounded offended. "Because from where I stand, I can only see you betraying me."

"No, Mare, believe me!" Saori was officially desperate then. "I couldn't foresee the Saint's reaction today. I swear I have nothing to do with this! I'm hopeless! I can't take it anymore! I can't do this, you know. All this was supposed to be so different… So please, please, please, go and talk sense to them. Let them talk to you if they feel they must, and tell them to stop wasting their time and to prepare themselves…"

Seeing Saori so hopeless was something Mare couldn't stand. They barely knew each other, but Mare knew what was at stake there. She sighed and consented.

"By the way, Mare." Saori said before leaving Mare's room. "I thought you might need clean clothes. You can borrow mine, if you like. Here…" Then Saori left a huge basked full of clothes so that Mare could get a change of clothes.

"Thank you, Saori." Mare said wholeheartedly impressed. "That's so kind of you! My jeans are still soaked due to the rain."

"You're welcome."

Saori's smile was one of a kind, strange and enigmatic like Mona Lisa's, but beautiful nonetheless. Once she left, Mare decided to get one of Saori's items of clothing and get changed.

"Oh, dear me." Mare whispered to herself and then she bit her lower lip. "No jeans or trousers… Errr… Now what?"

* * *

"Saori tells me you wanted me. Why is that?" Mare bluntly said while entering the training room in which the Bronze Saints were having a meeting to decide stuff.

She was wearing golden, long earrings and a deep purple, long dress with short, loose sleeves and a glorious V-neck. It beautifully matched her eyes and it displayed her curves with style. Her open hand was gently leaning on the surface of the open, thick, wooden door. She had a smile on her face and, although she didn't want to be there at all, she put a brave face and stormed into the room. She wasn't openly angry about this whole thing, she just wanted to be left alone – especially because she was wearing a dress that made her feel weird and weak.

"I desperately need my stuff." Mare thought seriously while the guys shot a predator stare at her. "As soon as this is over, I'm gonna fetch my clothes at the pension I was supposed to stay."

"Mare!" Shun exclaimed as he felt a sudden wave of happiness.

"She's here…" Hyoga said amazed, as if he had just seen a goddess.

"Unbelievable…" Seiya whispered.

The training room was huge and full of weights, a huge ring, boxing stuff and other training material. It was decorated strictly in black, red, white and blue. It was impressive. Mare felt like training like mad then, she wanted to try everything – but she couldn't for obvious reasons. She even started to think that the Bronze Saints were being taken really good care of, even thought they were complaining about Saori all the time. It was obvious that Saori had a peculiar way of displaying kindness or concern for others: only through the stuff she could afford.

"What are you doing here, Mare?" Shun asked her gently while coming a bit closer to her. She immediately thought he was looking at her like a child looks at a Christmas tree the night before Christmas.

"Like I said," Mare went on. "Saori's told me you wanted to waste your time trying to locate me. Lame idea, but I'm here anyway. So, you tell me. What do you want with me?"

"Errr… Well,…" Seiya wasn't very good with words sometimes, but his casual attempts were cute.

"How come you've arrived here so fast?" Hyoga asked her genuinely amused. "Does Saori have a hotline with you or what?"

"Maybe." Mare wasn't feeling very talkative that grey morning. She had other stuff in her mind, worrying her badly. Seeing that her passive-aggressive answer was getting nowhere, she mildly sighed and changed her attitude a bit. "OK, Saori asked me to spend the night here. Satisfied?"

"Have you been here all along?!" Shun asked quite exhilarated.

"Not all along." She answered casually. "Just last night."

"Because Saori told you to, right?" Hyoga pointed out seriously and mildly angered. "Why? What power has Saori got over you?"

"None. Who said this is about power?" Mare asked frowning.

"But why would you stay over unless Saori has something on you?" Hyoga replied daringly.

"OK, I get it… I get it." Mare concluded and got passive-aggressive again. "Saori can be a nice person if she wants to. It's hard to see since she doesn't practise much. Maybe she's got issues. I don't know! Whatever. But if you're willing to waste my time asking stupid questions, it's fine with me. But, you see, I'm quite busy at the moment."

"OK, don't be mad. We wanted to ask you to fight by our side against Ikki." Shiryu asked her quite formally. "Will you join us?"

Then, Shun clenched his fists. He was tense and was trying to bear it. Mare noticed it. All the Bronze Saints were intensely staring at her, especially Shun, and, although they felt imposing on her, Mare didn't flinch. She crossed her arms over her chest and frowned defiantly. She sighed.

"Look, I have absolutely no idea what's going through your minds, but hell no." Mare answered seriously but calmly. She was trying to instill sense in them. "I won't go. Why do you think I could be of any help anyway? Just because I kicked that stupid Black Saint's ass? Come on, guys! Be sensible. I'm not a Saint. I haven't been trained for this. You shouldn't waste your time getting… obsessed with me or… whatever." She was putting up an act which she thought that might work.

"I'd never stop getting obsessed by you, Mare." Shun thought with kindness and attraction.

"Your aura is very much like ours, which is striking. Doesn't it justify our obsession with you?" Hyoga decided to voice what everyone was thinking. His inquisitive words were rough in her ears, but somehow his voice was soft as silk. "Well, yes. That kind of aura can't be obtained by training. You're born with it. You have it and we're not gonna let it go so easily."

"Hyoga is right." Shiryu added seriously. His pose was unbreakable like a mountain range. He took a step towards her. Good Gods, he was impressive if he wanted to. "You might not be a Saint, but you've got what it takes to be one. Beating that Black Saint the other day was enough proof of what you can do."

"Will you join us, Mare? Please…" Seiya insisted trying to sound polite, although his utterance distilled more impatience than anything else.

"You must be kidding me." Mare whispered hopelessly.

She didn't like it when someone pushed her to do things. She just wanted to be left alone. She was a loner most of the time, although she knew how to interact with people properly. Well, more or less properly. But this whole situation was overwhelming her. She started to feel extremely nervous, like when Shun had cornered her on the breakwater the previous day. Her feelings were starting to show on her face. What if they discovered who she was or what she was up to?

"You're outstanding, Mare." Hyoga added with more care then because he noticed her fear, but he was still pushing her. His deep blue eyes displayed genuine concern for her for the first time – and she noticed. "You could do this. You could save the world by our side. We need you."

As soon as he had uttered those words, she took a step backwards. She didn't fully trust this change of attitude. She was clueless about what to say or do next.

"Stop it, guys." Shun said seriously as he stood between them and her. As she stared at his back, speechless due to his boldness, he went on to elaborate on that: "You can't insist any further. If she doesn't want to come, she won't."

"For once you've got guts." Hyoga replied immediately, smirking at him defiantly. "Amazing."

"Don't be so arrogant, Hyoga." Shiryu said politely. "Please, Shun. Explain yourself. You must have your reasons."

"Unfortunately I do." Shun answered more darkly.

"Good Goods, this is it." Mare thought feeling a cold shiver in her spine. "If he knows about me and my mission, he's gonna spill the beans now. I still don't know how he might've figured it all out (because Saori swore to me she didn't say a word), but then why would he shield me like this? He won't let me take any risks. He must know then. Or else it makes no sense." She bit her lower lip as she was waiting for him to develop on his answer.

"Some fruit seeds might've stuck into your head, Shun." Hyoga said with cheek, trying to mock Shun, while he was staring intensely at Mare.

"Hyoga, please. Stop it." Seiya said. "Shun,…"

"From where I see it," Shun went on, trying to sound gentle as he usually was. He failed. His voice sounded strong like thunder and his face was stern as if it was the law. "I don't think she should be part of this. She's got a mighty aura, sure. She defeated a Black Saint on her own, fine. She could help us, there's no denying it. She's everything we're looking for in a fighting partner, but you know what? I'm not delusional. I've been watching her closely… I've seen her interact with the kids in this town. They love her so much! I don't need to see anything else to know that she's not coming to face a certain death with us. I won't allow it."

"You're too emotional, Shun." Hyoga complained coldly.

"Plus she's got no training or armour. What do you expect from her?" Shun reacted more aggressively then. "You can't possibly expect her to be a hero overnight! Face it: _we're_ the ones who must come back with the golden armour, not _her_."

"I told you I got some training, Shun." Mare thought. She was astounded then. "Why are you lying for me?"

"Shun is right." Seiya said gently closing his eyes, trying to take that in. "We shouldn't do this. The responsibility is only ours, not hers."

Hyoga let out a sneer and crossed his arms over his chest. Shiryu just nodded at Seiya's words.

"Mare," Shun said turning around and facing her. His eyes were gentle like a light rainfall right before dawn. "I'm sorry we put you through this. You don't have to worry." He finished that with a genuine broad smile on his face, so much so that Mare became dumbstruck. The simplicity of his words and his kindness towards her were touching.

"Good Gods," She thought with the delicacy of a whisper uttered right into a lover's ear while he's sleeping. "I've never been able to do such a thing. It's amazing."

"You put thoughts into words better than I do." Mare finally said smiling. "Thanks."

"Are you staying over tonight?" Shun asked. His eyes were glowing.

"Sure."

And then she left the training room, her hand gently sliding over the surface of the door until she disappeared into the corridor.

* * *

After that, the Bronze Saints let her be. Shun felt more relaxed than he had ever been in his entire life. He leaned on the wall behind him. The guys noticed this immediately and Hyoga wouldn't let it go so easily.

"So…" Hyoga started the ball rolling with his condescending tone. "Shun, you said you've been watching her closely. What the hell does that mean?"

"You've been with her and you didn't tell us?" Seiya asked naively.

"I was covered in fruit juice and seeds because of her, in case you don't remember." Shun answered mildly defiantly.

"There's more to it, I'm sure." Hyoga didn't trust Shun's words.

"Are you hiding something from us, Shun?" Shiryu inquired seriously.

"No, of course not." Shun replied gently as usual.

"I think your brother spotted what we've been too blind to see." Hyoga went on as he took a threatening step towards Shun. "I bet you've fallen in love with her. That's why you wanna protect her."

"Are you mad?" Shun asked nervously as he stood defiantly like before.

"And that's why she's staying over. Saori has nothing to do with it. She's not the reason behind it – it's you. She cares for you. That's why she's here."

"What? No! Impossible…" Shun exclaimed defensively, wondering if that could be true. The second he did so, his heart skipped a beat.

"You're an emotional fool, Shun." Hyoga attacked him. "Don't try to hide it. We've seen it with our own eyes. You got nervous the second she appeared. You got defensive when we cornered her. You got softer when you were talking to her. What are you playing at? We've got a very dangerous mission ahead of us and you're willing to put yourself in danger because of your emotions, man."

"I tell you we're not in love, Hyoga." Shun said seriously, but he averted his eyes from him as he said so. "If you choose not to believe me, that's fine. I couldn't care less. Besides…"

"Whatever." Hyoga interrupted him.

"Besides, I won't let this interfere with our mission. I _swear_." Shun insisted seriously.

No one dared to inquire any further.

* * *

A few hours later, that same late evening, Mare had just come back from the pension she used to stay in those last few nights. She had to fetch her stuff. She was still wearing that same purple dress and she was carrying her bags to her new room, which made it extremely difficult. Dresses are not designed to let you carry stuff around.

"I'm gonna kill myself if I'm forced to wear a dress in front of the guys a second time." Mare thought with disgust.

Although she had told herself she'd go get her clothes and change immediately after her meeting with the Bronze Saints, she somehow kept procrastinating it all day. Why? The weather had improved a great deal, so the heavy rainfall wasn't the culprit. In fact, the dress felt really well on her skin. She had to admit that. The fabric was like heaven, so soft and delightful that she was sure she would miss the touch as soon as she changed her clothing.

"Am I falling in love with a dress?" She thought raising an eyebrow at herself. "Really? Oh dear, I must be getting mad for sure."

Anyway, she was glad all over, since she could spend all day bonding with Saori and a girl called Shunrei, a 'close friend' of Shiryu. By the end of the day, they were great friends already.

Her bedroom was located in a peculiar corridor: it had some sort of indentation so that there was separate space with a couple of square meters on one side of the corridor. It was beautifully decorated, very classically, a large painting of a landscape and a vase with white roses. In this indentation, there were two doors. The door on the left led to Saori's bedroom. The one on the right, to hers.

As soon as she reached her bedroom's door, she left her bags on the floor beside her. She was exhausted and sighed once, briefly. She was about to put her hand on the doorknob when suddenly she felt an ominous presence. A pair of hands got hold of her arms and swiftly forced to turn around. Her hair floated around her majestically, freely, carelessly. So did the frills of her dress. As soon as she saw who did this to her, she was immediately pushed against the door quite aggressively. She gasped and unconsciously closed her eyes once when her back hit the robust wooden door of her bedroom.

"Hyoga!" Mare exclaimed amazed but angered. His blue eyes seemed to be aflame. He was even wearing his armour, although the training hours were long gone then. "What do you think you're doing?!"

She immediately tried to push both his arms away from her using both her hands, but Hyoga reacted quickly and grabbed both her wrists and pinned them to the door on either side of her shoulders. She tried to push and pull her arms, but she was unable to move an inch: Hyoga was too strong and was holding her wrists with an unrivalled strength. She moaned once as a complaint. His face was barely at a couple of inches' distance from hers and she blushed. She could feel his breath on her skin. Her strength left her and seemed to fade away for good, forever.

They stared at each other for a while directly into each other's eyes. She didn't know what to make of this.

"I know you can do this." He whispered using a sexy, husky voice. "Fight me."

"What…?" She whispered too.

"I'm gonna prove you can really fight a Saint." He insisted, whispering aggressively to her. "But you wouldn't do it _unless_ someone pushed you to. You must be _forced_ to do it."

As soon as she heard this, she started to panic and regained her strength, which was precisely what Hyoga wanted. She clenched her fists and frowned. Then, she even dared to push her chest and face towards him so that the space between them was minimal and defiantly spoke thus:

"You _shouldn't_ touch me like this. I won't let you prove anything. I'd rather get hurt."

"Would you let yourself get hurt just to prove me wrong?" He asked while staring at her inviting, glossy lips and realising he could peep at her cleavage.

"_Touché_." She answered defiantly. Her gaze never flinched one second.

"Smart." He chuckled once and smirked. "I _like_ you."

Having said that, he swiftly leaned on her and languidly and leisurely kissed her. Her head softly hit the surface of the door again. She was dumbstruck… That was odd. She had absolutely no idea as regards what to do: should she let him carry on pushing her or should she fight him? If she displayed she could actually fight, she was done for: she'd be forced to go on that mission even though she was needed somewhere else. And if she didn't fight back and let him carry on teasing her, she would have to endure anything he chose to do to her.

His lips were soft and warm. They didn't feel bad – what felt awful was the whole idea behind his actions. His tongue made his way into her mouth and she moaned once when she realised she was unable to stop him. Would Hyoga attempt to rape her or something of the kind? Her fear levels increased alarmingly.

"If only I could stop him…" She thought starting to shake and shedding a tear while he was snogging her.

She genuinely lost all strength – this time for good. Hyoga let one of her wrists go and decided to pull her waist to his body with determination and hold her still like that. Her free arm fell aimlessly, as if dead. She noticed his boner then and, wide-eyed, feared what fate had planned for her that night. Next, he stopped snogging her for a couple of seconds, realising she had awakened something in him which he never expected to happen: lust.

He felt his boner against her hips. Then, he stared at her mildly swollen lips and started to tease them back again, kissing them softly a couple of times at the beginning, and licking them with naughtiness later on. She was too sweet, too intoxicating for him. In the meantime, he got the chance to speak thus, whispering with his sexy, husky voice from time to time:

"You're either… holding back… your pride… and your strength… or… you're a… delightful… weak… sweet… little princess… You make a great partner either way."

Then, she gasped, turned her head to her right and whispered sadly thus:

"A Saint shouldn't act like this. Aren't you ashamed?" She was hoping this would stop him. Then, she thought with anger: "If he doesn't react properly, I'm gonna unleash my power – _fuck_ the plan! – and try to kick his ass. He's stronger than I initially thought, though. I wonder if I could actually beat him."

That unsettled him truly, so much so that he stopped abusing her. Then he realised she was completely devoid of strength, shaking like a leaf, blushing wildly and uncomfortable due to the unbearable closeness between them. He was forcing himself on her – and she wasn't fighting back like he thought she would.

Suddenly he felt he was the greatest idiot on Earth. Therefore, he immediately released her and took a couple of steps backwards, trying to figure out what to do or say then. But he had no time to do anything: she took advantage of the fact that he was frozen to punch him in the face with all her might. Her aura became larger than his in a nanosecond. Hyoga was propelled to the wall with a thud. He was nearly knocked out. It hurt very badly and he groaned. Some blood escaped from his fine lips and stained his chin and chest. He was dumbstruck. He raised his eyes to her, knowing for sure then that she had been holding back, that she was a fighter, that she could actually do it. Then, he saw how she covered her chest protectively with both her arms and she averted her eyes to the floor. She was shaking all over and, before he knew it, she opened her bedroom's door and desperately locked herself in. Next, he heard her sob once.

"Oh my Gods…" He immediately regretted this whole thing. "I was right. But what have I done?"

* * *

That night Mare didn't sleep at all. Saori found her sunk in a corner of the room staring through the window on the next morning. Since Mare didn't come to have breakfast or anything, she had wondered if there was something wrong. Saori even thought that Mare wasn't probably feeling well – and she wasn't, but in a different way than Saori expected.

"What's this smell?" Saori asked worried as she entered Mare's room after knocking a couple of times and getting no answer from her. "Mare?"

She soon found out that the purple dress had been mercilessly burned in a bin. Mare was overdressed so that not an inch of the skin of her body was shown. She was pulling her long sleeves down her hands nervously and obsessively.

"Mare, what's wrong?" Saori asked worried like hell.

When Mare managed to tell Saori what happened, she was shaking badly again. Saori was appalled by her story.

"Don't tell this to anyone!" Mare eventually begged Saori. "Please, don't Saori. I know what you're thinking. Don't do it, please. I won't ever ask you any other favour in my entire life. Just don't tell anyone."

"Not even Shun?" Saori asked sadly.

"_Especially_ _not him_!" Mare exclaimed outraged.

"He should know. He's understanding and kind. He would…" Saori insisted kindly.

"Saori, please, don't tell anyone!" Mare was beyond desperate then.

"OK, fine. I won't…" Saori finally promised after a sigh.

"Don't lie to me, Saori! Because I swear to the Gods that if Shun hears about this I'm gonna…" Mare reacted aggressively.

"I won't, OK, Mare? Try to calm down, please!" Saori said nervously. She was obviously worried about Mare.

"You have to understand that if you say anything, the guys may not be ready to fight Ikki and retrieve the golden armour. It could mean the end. You can't allow this to happen. The group must hold on… together." Mare insisted whispering.

She was sage and self-sacrificing and Saori knew it was the right thing to do, although the cost was too much to bear. Then, even though Mare tried to smile with confidence, Saori couldn't shake off the sorrowful expression on her own face. This was so unexpected that she didn't know what to do about it.

* * *

The last day before the Bronze Saints' departure had begun awfully for the girls. Hyoga didn't say anything and neither did Saori or Shunrei, who also knew about this. Mare allowed Shunrei to comfort her and keep her company while Saori made sure none of the guys came by or discovered anything. Both of them had promised Mare not to come clean, but it was obvious that they were concealing something. Their gazes were distant and worried during lunchtime for example. Mare was nowhere to be seen during the whole day and Saori invented an excuse for her. Shiryu, who was the smartest of the group by far, was suspecting something, since he knew Shunrei very well, but he asked nothing because he assumed both girls were worried about their impending fate in the fight against Ikki.

In the meantime, Shun badly missed Mare all day. He was oblivious as regards the incident that had happened the night before. He was actually hoping to see her around the Foundation and be able to chat with her.

"I don't want to go if I haven't seen her at least once more." Shun thought with kindness, bewitched by something about her he didn't fully grasp. "I'll wait some more hours, but I'm gonna go crazy if she doesn't appear."

Hyoga kept watching Shun quite closely all day. He was trying hard not to be discovered – and the bruise on his jaw made it more difficult. He invented an excuse, of course, although he knew it was quite a lame one. In spite of that, no one inquired any further.

"I was right. She's capable of fighting." Hyoga thought seriously. "Her aura was stronger than mine even! But if I tell the guys, I'll have to admit that I've been a bad guy and that I wasn't fair to Mare…" And whenever that name came to his mind, it magically triggered that recently awakened lust within his chest. He blushed again. "I like her… _very much_. I'd love to touch her again – but she must hate me. Of that I'm sure. Shun would've never reacted the way I did. He's a true gentleman. I'll never undermine him because of his emotions or his kindness."

* * *

In the meantime, Mare was making progress of her own alone in her room that same afternoon. She was a strong young woman and she knew she could face the ups and downs of life. Her mind was made up to move on. She decided to get dressed the way she usually did (blue jeans, a sexy purple blouse, boots) and tried to figure out how to go out of the room and behave like a normal, civilised person who would not try to kill or beat Hyoga. She knew she needed to confront him sooner or later, but she still believed that their departure should be best undisrupted by those recent, hurtful events. For the time being, she just needed to make sure that under no circumstances would she be left alone with him. That would be enough – or so she thought. And by the end of the day, they'd be gone already. They would set sail that same night.

"And then…" She thought with care. "I'll be free to do as planned. I really have to go and check what's wrong so that I can fix it… and return home asap. I shouldn't be here, although it's kinda nice, and there's Shun,… and as soon as I'm done with my plan, this would be as if it had never happened… I don't see any harm in staying here with Saori for a bit longer if she says she needs me… What should I do?"

She bit her lower lip, hesitating, but then she shook her head and decided to stop worrying. Therefore, that afternoon she went out of her room and headed to the library. She really enjoyed reading and Saori had tons and tons of books which she kept ignoring for years.

As soon as she entered the library, she was surprised to see Shun lying on that nice purple chaise longue reading a novel.

"Hi, there!" She said joyfully as she closed the door behind her. She was happy to see him – and to spend time completely alone with him. That way, she was sure she'd never end up alone with Hyoga.

"_Mare_…" Shun greeted her.

He was obviously thrilled to see her. As soon as she was in the same room, he closed the book without making sure what page he was reading.

* * *

That same afternoon, Seiya and Saori were slowly making progress in their (let's call it) friendship. They were talking about their mission the two of them alone in the hall while the guys were training and preparing to leave that night. By dawn, they'd be there facing Ikki. Saori was trying hard to be a better, nicer person – and Seiya soon noticed it. He was usually aware of this kind of stuff.

"Saori," Seiya said rather apologetically. "I must admit that you're quite changed. I never thought you could be such a kind person."

"I can be when I want to." She replied quite dryly. She still got her pride.

"Then you should want to more often. It suits you nicely." He said honestly, so much so that Saori blushed at his blunt comment.

Out of the blue, Saori felt quite bad. Like a sudden headache, she touched her forehead and frowned. She started to feel dizzy and groaned.

"Oh, dear…" She whispered.

"Saori!" Seiya asked worried as he came closer to her and held her lovingly. "What's wrong?"

* * *

In the meantime, Shun and Mare were chatting in the library. She had entered the room and sat across him on a twin purple chaise longue. The gulls were singing joyfully outside and the orange sky shed lovely orange rays of light onto the library's floor. Shun left his thick, leather-bound book on a small table beside him and stared back at her with his mighty, deep green eyes.

"So where have you been the whole day?" Shun asked naively. "We missed you." But he actually meant 'I missed you'.

Mare fell silent all of a sudden. Shun observed and waited as her face became sadder and sadder. Something was the matter.

"I… got…" She hesitated. "personal stuff to take care of."

Silence. She felt stronger then, but not enough to openly speak to Shun about what Hyoga did to her the previous night.

"Don't worry. It's nothing, really." She went on whispering. Then, she got an idea: changing the subject in a jolly good mood. "What about you? What have you been doing all day? Did you get ready?"

"Yeah, there wasn't much to do to get ready, though." Shun answered casually. "I've been reading for the most part."

"You look so carefree right now…" Mare said worried. "You're about to set sail to a mysterious island where your brother is waiting for you and looking forward to killing you all. I'm sorry. I really don't get why you're _not_ nervous."

"If you ask me, it's a matter of perspective." He said with a smile on his face. "I expect him to listen to me and to come to his senses."

"Your bottle is always half full, isn't it?" She said with a smile of her face.

"I'm an optimistic fool." He sighed. "Everyone knows that."

"Everyone _calls_ you that." She added attempting to correct him. "That doesn't really mean you _are_ one. Besides, being optimistic is not a sin. Anyway, if anyone told me so, I'd kick their cynic asses."

Shun seemed to ponder on this idea and nodded.

"You're smart." He concluded smiling broadly. "I _like_ you."

Mare froze and felt a cold shiver. Those words were almost the same that Hyoga had told her the night before. She felt blue again, although she knew Shun would never impose himself over her the way Hyoga had done, yet she couldn't shake off that horrible feeling. Because of that, Shun's smile vanished from his face. He hated it when she reacted like that and he didn't know the reason behind it. He might know her name and some other stuff, but she was still a mystery to him in many ways. She fell silent and didn't feel like speaking again.

"Shall we…" He went on speaking gently. "go to the kitchen?"

"Why?" She asked naively.

"I'll let you throw fruit at me if that cheers you up." He replied with a soft smile on his face again.

She immediately chuckled and smiled again.

"I think I saw a melon, some oranges and grapefruit…" He added joyfully. "_Oh_, and tomatoes. They make really great weapons if they're ripe enough."

"You know," She giggled and cheerfully added: "there's a lot of people who don't know that tomatoes…"

"… are _actually_ fruit." He finished off her sentence using the same words she was thinking about. "Not vegetables. Yeah, I know that."

They stared at each other.

"You… You're _dangerous_…" She said raising an eyebrow at him naughtily. "You _get_ me. As if you can read through me."

"Although you're hard to read." He added sounding too honest.

"Am I?" She asked defiantly.

"Yes, you _are_."

They fell silent because they had somehow reached a dead end, although it felt good.

"I will miss you, Shun." She said whispering then.

Their gazes perfectly locked with each other like a chain and it felt so good. That last sentence of hers made him feel sad and great at the same time.

All of a sudden, they heard a noise coming from the door and then a hushing sound. Both stared at it and then silently stared back at each other, wondering whether they had imagined it or not. Mare was more suspicious than Shun, so she decided to act.

"I've got you!" She yelled in anger, completely faking it, though. She wasn't really mad, just pretending to. "When I open the door, I'm gonna kick your ass, whoever you might be! Run for your lives or beg for mercy, 'cos I'm coming after you!"

Shun was dumbfounded at her bold reaction. Then she stormed to the door making extremely noisy footsteps as if she was Godzilla or something. Out of the blue, the door opened completely and the kids from the beach came in. Mare suspected it was them, but nonetheless she was astonished to see them there and so was Shun. Once they had been discovered, they came in and stood in front of Mare. They were embarrassed and their heads were hanging low, ashamed of their behaviour.

"Who let you in, may I ask? And have you been listening through the door?" Mare asked them as if she was a disappointed mother.

One of the eldest ones spoke shyly thus:

"Mare, please, don't be mad at us… We just wanted to see you once more before you left."

They fell silent and Mare didn't know what to say. Shun raised an eyebrow to her at that unusual comment. Mare shrugged her shoulders at him. She was clueless. One of the youngest just couldn't take it anymore, jumped towards her and hugged her around her knees hopelessly. And he cried thus:

"We love you, Mare! Please don't go!"

Right after this comment, tears began flowing down their cheeks and the other kids also hugged her as if they would never let her go for the rest of their lives. Mare blushed and gasped once due to the amazement. They were holding her legs quite tightly.

"Would you be so kind as to tell me where I'm going to, please?" She asked politely, but making fun of them. "Honestly, I'd _love_ to know."

Shun smiled warmly because she was nicely teasing them. The kids just stared at her as if they didn't understand anything. Then, they stared at Shun and frowned.

"Don't treat us like little children!" One of them shot this angry comment at her. "It's his fault and we know it!" He said pointing aggressively at Shun. "We know he's kidnapped you! He wants to take you away to fight against that evil Saint who stole the golden armour!"

Shun was completely astonished, but before he could even open his mouth to deny those accusations, the kids went on:

"You're in danger!" Another kid proudly proclaimed.

"We won't allow it! We will kick his ass and rescue you, Mare!" A third one exclaimed valiantly.

"We swear it!" The first one shouted.

"_Yeah_!" They yelled in unison with undeserved bravery.

"OMG, you're officially crazy, I see." She said point-blank and sighed. "Look, you care a lot for me and want to keep me safe and sound. I get it… and I'm honoured. I'm _really_ proud of you, but you see, I'm not…"

"Let's kick Shun's ass!"

"Yeah!" All the kids yelled as they stampeded towards Shun to beat him up.

"Kids! Stop!" Shun rushed to defend himself orally as he put both his palms in front of him apologetically. "I'm _not_ going to take her away with me! It's _not_ what you think!"

"No, please, no…!" She yelled right before the inevitable disaster occurred.

Shun would never ever defend himself from those kids, no matter what they wanted to do to him – and Mare knew that. They jumped on him even though Shun was swearing he had no such intentions of taking Mare away to face any kind of lethal danger. They pulled his hair and kicked him and, although it was obvious that he wasn't in any real danger (because he was a Saint, of course – he was strong and tough to beat), he was making too many funny faces. He was probably faking them so that those kids got what they wanted. Mare even made a funny face herself when he chanced to gaze at her, meaning 'Oh dear, I'm so sorry…', and tried hard to take those kids off him one by one and telling them off.

"You! Stop it!" She said with anger. "Stop! All of you! He's not taking me away! He actually protected me and convinced the rest of the Saints to stop pushing me to go!"

When she said so, the kids stopped and stared at both Shun and Mare. They apologised to Shun and left him alone. Then, Mare helped him to stand up. She softly put a hand on his right shoulder and the other on the upper-left part of his chest.

"It may be a stupid question, but" She whispered giggling. "are you OK?"

"Yes…" Shun answered with a gentle smile on his face. "And yes, I'm fine. Are you?"

Then, she chuckled as she put a lock of her hair behind his ear. Shun kept staring lovingly at her while he was gently holding her arm, the one whose hand was still gently on his shoulder. The kids witnessed this little scene and took their own conclusions.

"So… you protected her." One of the youngest asked naively: "Do you _like_ her, Shun?"

"_What_…?!" Shun exclaimed blushing revealingly. Mare blushed a lot, too. They stopped touching each other's arms.

"He tried to save her that day in the Coliseum, you idiot! Then he _ran_ after her! Of course he _likes_ her!" Another yelled at the first one quite angrily.

"Yeah, that's true." Some kids said while nodding, taking the whole thing for granted.

"What?!" Shun exclaimed again. "No, I… It's just that…"

"What do you mean?" One of the eldest asked raising an eyebrow, using an offended tone. "You _don't_ like her?"

"No! It's not that… I…" Shun hesitated, blushing even more.

Mare kept staring at him, blushing like never before; and, when he chanced to look at her, she raised an eyebrow at him and whispered with sarcasm:

"I bet it'd be _a lot easier_ to be on that damned island now facing a fate worse than death…"

"_Touché_…" He whispered to her.

Their respective words made them smile broadly and warmly at each other, and the kids, having seen this, smiled broadly too and started shrieking and mocking both of them thus:

"Big'uns _kiss_ when they _like_ each other…" One of them said.

"_Shun and Mare sitting in a tree_…" They sang in unison as they jumped and danced like little elves around them.

"Oh dear, please, don't!" Mare whispered embarrassed.

"… K-I-S-S-I-N-G! …" The kids went on singing as they pushed both their backs so that Mare and Shun ended up facing one another and both their chests softly collided.

They couldn't possibly blush more. Mare accidentally put her hands on the upper part of his chest and Shun unconsciously and very gently put his hands on either side of her ribs.

"… First comes love,…" They sang on cheerfully.

"They just _love_ messing with us. It's _normal_…" Shun whispered to her trying to play it down, although the simple act of talking to her made him blush more.

"… then comes marriage,…"

"Yeah, it's not such a big deal, isn't it?" Mare agreed, still blushing too much.

"… then comes baby…" And on they went…

"You're the bold one." Shun whispered to her desperately. "How can we get _out_ of this one?" Mare lightly shrugged her shoulders and was left speechless for the first time ever.

"… in a baby carriage!" The end.

"Don't worry… I have an idea." He said smiling then as if he had just had a brilliant thought. "I know how to end this."

"How?" She whispered back smiling too.

And then he got hold of her jaw, swiftly leaned on her and kissed her deeply. That caught her by surprise. The mere touch made her feel amazingly numb, so much so that she lost every bit of strength and balance and Shun had to get hold of her whole body, hugging her tightly before she could fall down. Both of them closed their eyes and ignored the rest of the world surrounding them, even the presence of an astounded, very young audience whose mouths were hanging down in amazement.

Shun was right: his idea meant the end of the kids' mockery – but it meant the beginning of something completely different. Their bodies seemed to ignite due to the contact with one another. Once the initial shock wave was over, she kissed him back, shyly but gladly. It was very different from how Mare had felt the previous night as Hyoga had imposed over her. Even though Shun was holding her like steel beams would hold a house with a firm grip, he was extremely careful with her. His touch was delicate, as if she was a rose. But Mare didn't have much time to enjoy the kiss, since Shun made his lips suddenly, but very slowly, part from hers. He rested his forehead against hers, breathing hard. His expression became sad and whispered thus:

"At least now you know how I feel about you if I don't ever come back…"

Panic filled Mare's eyes as they were staring at each other. The kids gasped very lowly.

"Are you scared?" Shun asked her whispering very gently then. His eyes were glowing when Mare just nodded shyly and nervously bit her lower lip once. "Forget I said that. I'll be back, I swear…"

And then he pecked her lips briefly, just once, and stared at her. If Cupid hadn't hit her heart by then, he surely aimed and fired his arrow with astounding precision at that moment.

"Gods," She sighed deeply and whispered: "you'll be the death of me…" She tried to smile but it was obvious that she couldn't fake it after all this.

"Kids," Shun addressed them formally and seriously, but very politely. "Mare can play with you tomorrow. I still have an hour before I have to go. Can you give me these last few minutes with her?... Alone, please?"

They just nodded and fled the room immediately. Once they were gone, Mare felt overwhelmingly sad and Shun noticed it. He was still holding her in the same way, tightly but gently, and she made no move or comment which displayed discomfort or denial.

"What is it?" He whispered gently.

"I'm not made of steel, Shun." The mere mention of his name made her tremble. "I'm breaking… I'm… Maybe this shouldn't have happened today." She whispered frowning.

"What?" Shun asked astonished, thinking he was losing her.

"I'm a mess, Shun." She said with sadness. "You… just kissed me. You're going away in an hour… Plus, something horrible happened and I…"

"What? What's wrong?" He asked worried beyond doubt.

"I didn't want to tell this to anyone else, but…" She hesitated and bit her lower lip again. "How can I say this? OMG… Let's just say that I shouldn't have met someone these last few days, because it's caused me a great pain… But I don't wanna burden you with this now. The timing is _sooo_ bad, right, and I…"

"What are you talking about?" He was clueless.

Then, she groaned and frowned as if a lightning had struck her head. She put her hands on her head and started yelling hopelessly. The evening's sky had gone almost dark blue and she was trying hard not to lose her balance. Luckily, Shun was still holding her quite closely. She felt very weak all of a sudden and she couldn't even fathom any plausible potential cause. Shun didn't know what to do.

"Mare! What's wrong?"

"It hurts so badly!" Her voice was becoming distorted even due to the acute pain.

She was losing her balance. A few seconds later, she wasn't able to process anything Shun was telling her and fainted in his arms. Then, he decided to hold her like a bride. It would be easier to lay her down on a chaise longue.

"Mare…" He whispered warmly, but worried as her body lay against his as if she was devoid of life.

Then, an evil laughter filled the room.

"Did you do this?! Who are you?!" Shun asked enraged. "Show yourself!"

A very thin white guy in a purple armour appeared by the windows and he had a very naughty smirk on his thin lips.

"I'm Dormantis, pleased to kill you." He said with a flourish, trying to impress and scare Shun.

Unexpectedly, as Shun soon discovered while talking to this sly fellow, their enemy, Shun's elder brother Ikki, had sent one of his most ruthless minions, this guy called Dormantis, to do his bidding. But he knew that trying to mess with the Bronze Saints would be no easy task. Thus, instead of formally attacking them, as it should have been the most appropriate and honourable thing to do, he cast a spell on the females currently living under the roof of the Foundation. The result was patent on Mare, for example. Shun clenched his teeth.

"My spell involves a huge headache, numbness and eventually fainting." Dormantis explained rather politely. "You've seen it yourself."

"Why did you come here? We were about to set sail and fight against the whole lot of you? Why now? Why here? Why the girls?"

"It's nastier… more fun for me."

"It isn't honourable! How dare you do such a thing?!" Shun was extremely angry.

"I could've killed those kids instead." Dormantis said with a cold voice. "But then I thought that if I harmed the women you care about, the damage would be bigger… for you, of course. Besides,…"

"You, bastard!"

"When you're dead, I can take them with me and do whatever I want with them – let your mind fill in the little details… It's a win-win deal!"

That last sentence ignited his anger, which he never thought he actually possessed, but he pulled himself together and left Mare lying on the nearest purple chaise longue. Once he had done this, he turned around to face his enemy, more than willing to kick his ass – and kill him if it was necessary. He didn't have the armour on and couldn't fetch it, but it didn't matter. He would go any lengths to fight this guy…


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary**: Shun and the other Saints come back after their training only to realise that the competition organized by Saori wasn't exactly as they had envisioned, including a mysterious guest/singer/fighter called Mare. She's got a mission of her own which might collide against theirs. OC/Shun

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Saint Seiya. I only own my OC, Mare.

* * *

**Chapter 3: Wrong**

Shun, whose anger had never before rallied and roared with such fierceness within the walls of his mind, was standing between his enemy and a peacefully sleeping Mare. He didn't care he didn't have his armour or his chains on: he'd do anything to shield her.

The broken windows were letting the evening's cold breeze in and the purple curtains were floating aimlessly between the two men. Even though part of the fabric accidentally crossed their field of vision, they didn't break the eye contact.

But then Dormantis, with his evil smirk and his dark-bottomless-pit eyes, laughed at Shun quite noisily and spoke thus to him as if the green-eyed Saint was a mere child:

"You idiot! You wanna fight against me? You don't get it, do you?"

Then, he playfully crashed some pieces of broken glass under his right foot. The noise felt pleasant for him.

"What?!" Shun exclaimed with a stern expression on his face.

"Like I said, I only came to do Ikki's bidding – no more."

"What do you mean? You must've come to fight against me! It's obvious!"

Shun's fists were so clenched that Dormantis could see his tendons and veins quite clearly. His eyes were aflame due to rage, a very uncommon feeling for him. He had to admit to himself that that was truly the first time that he had ever experienced such an intense fire within his chest.

"You fool!" Dormantis chuckled. "I was meant to hurt someone you guys _love_ – and I've already done it. It was so _fucking_ easy… You should've seen your worried face! Anyway… Now you're ready to meet your brother, or so says Ikki… He's got great plans for the lot of you, you know."

As soon as he said that, he came close to a window and vanished into thin air. His evil laughter lasted a few more seconds before it died out, leaving Shun with shaking, clenched fists and trembling due to anger and disbelief.

"Unbelievable…" Shun thought trying to come to terms with the fact that Ikki might've thought this whole thing up just to piss him off and to set his rage on fire, specially bearing in mind Shun's notorious peaceful and soft personality. "He's definitely trying very hard to make me hate him. But why? Why is my hate so important to him?"

He sighed as he stared out of the window which Dormantis had used to escape, then he gently closed his eyes and tried to chill out, so he breathed in and out evenly as the cool air filled the library. The deep purple curtains were still gently floating on either side of the broken window. Shun was still giving his back to Mare when he regained his usual easy-going mood. Once he had calmed down completely, he turned around and looked at her, who was peacefully sleeping on a purple chaise longue.

"I never thought I'd meet anyone like you. I…" Shun whispered to Mare as if she was awake and could actually listen to his words. Then, he sat down by her side on the chaise longue. Her peaceful countenance didn't reflect the pain she had felt a moment ago, when she was trying hard to hold on to conscience. But when she passed out, all her muscles relaxed automatically and she barely resembled her own self anymore. She seemed a completely different person: calm, weak and helpless, but these new features didn't devalue her beauty at all. They enhanced it instead.

He just brushed a lock of her beautiful dark hair slowly and carefully tucked it behind her left ear – and then he sighed almost inaudibly. He knew the other guys would soon start looking for them. He thought that they might've figured out what has happened to Saori and Shunrei might've also happened to Mare… They'd be around any second and, although he had openly displayed hints of attraction for her, he didn't want to make it more obvious. Hyoga already thought it was true anyway – and it was. Shun was more notorious for caring about absolutely everyone and their well-being than for his fighting abilities and strength. There was no denying it. Too late for that. That didn't really bother him, though – what really did bother him was what had just happened. It was enough proof that being close to him, for her, meant getting badly hurt. Therefore, he tried to refrain himself from touching her any further, because he felt extremely guilty.

"It's my fault. I caused this on you…" He whispered sadly, fighting the urge to cry.

However, no matter how hard he tried not to touch or stare at her, she was too gorgeous to be ignored. She was like an unforgiving magnet, incessantly pulling him towards her: her lightly-closed eyes, her long dark eyelashes, her fragile head turned sideways on her right partly facing him, her warm rosy cheeks, her sweet pink lips, her exposed porcelain-like neck, her strong silk-skinned shoulders, her usual suggestive neckline,… Shun swallowed hard.

Like a ruthless murderer, his eyes suddenly darkened as he pondered on his longed (yet quite recent), unfulfilled desires and, more serenely than he had ever expected to be, he thought thus:

"No one will ever know."

Silence.

Waiting.

No fuss could be heard from the corridor or any adjoining rooms.

He swallowed. He realised that he was waiting for something to happen, although he didn't know what exactly. It was as if he needed some excuse to make him stop before it was too late – and at the same time, he just didn't want any interruptions at all then. He was unable to come clean to himself: was he gladly waiting for his body to take over control of his mind? Or was he waiting for the guys to interrupt his lusty train of thought? That would easily bring him back to real life, the routine, to being _normal_.

He swallowed once more, unable to believe he was actually wishing to do it.

"No one will ever know – except me." He thought as darkly as before.

His usual good will and wisdom kept telling him he shouldn't do this, but something deep inside him had switched on the will-overriding mode and it was definitely taking control.

Once the idea had dawned on him, there was no going back and he knew it. That's when he put one hand on her right cheek and the other on her left arm. Then, he leaned down on her dormant figure and kissed her softly, only once, and yet he lengthened it because it was as if he needed to relish her warm, soft lips. He wanted her badly, more than he'd ever admit. Something was constantly pulling him to her – and this time it wasn't his chains. What happened a few days ago on that breakwater might've been prophetic, he thought.

And then he had to stop kissing her. His lips were throbbing, expecting to have more than they were allowed to.

As soon as his lips parted from hers, he stared down at her and he felt an unusual sensation of heat in his body. The back of his neck felt like boiling. The palms of his hands started sweating. He also felt his eyesight grow dimmer and his cheeks were burning with something darker – but a lot more appealing – than shame. Unlike earlier that very same afternoon, he felt that he needed more, that he couldn't be sated only with a kiss. There were no kids witnessing what he could do to her then.

Before he knew it, his head was gently resting on the crook of her neck, his eyes were gently closed and his lips were brushing her skin all the way down to her shoulder. His right hand dared to travel down her arm, gently like a feather, until it rested on her hips. Something in his mind complained at the touch of the fabric of her jeans… It felt _so right_ and _so wrong_ at the same time…

Then, he heard a faint sound. Air… Was it the wind, gently howling through a hole as if it was a sigh?

That's when something snapped in his mind: for a second he thought he had heard her sweetly moan very lowly and yet he couldn't be quite sure about it. She was unconscious. Had it been her? Could she feel him, what he was doing to her? He sighed without restraint, opened his eyes again and just lifted his head an inch from the skin of her neck.

"I'm surely going to pay for this sooner or later." He thought as if he was exhausted.

Out of the blue, he raised his head immediately and stared at the door with a worried look on his face. Hyoga was staring at the scene, standing from the door and wearing his armour. He was frozen, petrified as if what he had just seen was too much to bear. Had the sound come from him? Did he gasp when he saw them? That's what Shun instinctively thought then.

"Hyoga…" Shun whispered naively.

"I felt a menacing presence." Hyoga said seriously, trying to veil his astonishment. "What's going on here?" He said trying to sound neutral as he stared at Mare's sleeping beauty.

Right after Hyoga had shot that question to him, Shun blushed revealingly and hesitated. He could only think of Hyoga's aggressiveness towards him only 24 hours ago as regards his badly-concealed concern for that lovely girl fast asleep on that purple chaise longue.

Shun knew that Hyoga would take his own conclusions no matter what he said then, but Shun would never give up trying.

"A Black Saint came to attack us – well, to attack someone dear to us… someone _weaker_ than us... to piss us off." Shun said sadly. "You just missed him. He's just left."

"And you didn't fight back?" Hyoga asked a bit impertinently.

"I _would_ have even though I haven't got my armour on, Hyoga." Shun shot back with self-esteem and mild aggressiveness. "But that wasn't _his_ plan. Like I've just said, he came _only_ to hurt someone we love, but not to fight against us."

Hyoga fell silent for a while. He was pondering on Shun's words.

"I assume Shunrei and Saori must have undergone the same that Mare has just experienced… Poor girls."

Hyoga couldn't help but staring at Mare all the time, wondering what would've happened if _he_ had been there instead of Shun. He would've loved holding her in his arms and protecting her from any harm. In the meantime, Shun really thought Hyoga was mentally confirming what he had already suspected about Mare and him.

"I know, Hyoga." Shun finally said quite seriously, but with a great deal of determination. "I promised that I wouldn't let _this_ interfere with our mission." He was obviously referring to his own words as regards a potential love affair between them. "Apparently, I was _wrong_. Satisfied?"

And somehow he was glad to be wrong, because admitting he loved her might be counterproductive – but it felt _so_ good…

Shun's eyes were defying and hard on Hyoga's, piercing his soul as if Shun knew he would never again be intimidated or hurt by Hyoga's harsh words or oral aggressiveness. After a couple of seconds, Shun stared back at Mare and caressed one of her cheeks with great care.

"Hyoga can stare at us for as long as he wants." Shun thought with pride then. "I couldn't care less about what he can possibly say or do… _ever_."

He was wrong again, of course.

But he didn't know that yet.

* * *

It was a lovely, bright Sunday morning and the sun shone through the white, thin curtains of her bedroom. The air was warm and nice.

"Mare," Shun whispered with all the love in the world. "my sweetheart. I don't ever want to part from you." He softly caressed her left cheek while saying so.

She was not afraid of him, just a bit nervous. They had never been this close to each other… alone and… on a bed. He wasn't wearing any shirt, just his usual white trousers – no braces this time. They were lying on the floor beside her bed. His well-built chest was the headquarters of Mare's voyeuristic obsessions.

In the meantime, Shun kept staring at her and smiling to her. The daylight shone on Mare's sexy, white nightdress. It was extremely short, semi-transparent and parted in the middle. She wasn't wearing any shorts, just her panties. She swallowed once softly as soon as she realised Shun might be a naïve kind of guy, but not as naïve as a little child: his eyes were resting on several striking attributes of her body – and he couldn't help it. She loved the was his eyes were roaming over her entire body.

"Shun…" She whispered hesitatingly and her lips, parted in expectation, throbbed once.

"Hmm?" He asked half absently.

There was no answer… No words could do justice to the feeling that she had locked down her throat. So she just sighed.

Then, he leaned on her on the bed very slowly, never breaking the eye contact, and kissed her softly once on her soft, sweet lips. "You don't need to be nervous. You know I won't hurt you." He whispered gently as he combed a lock of her hair with his gentle fingers and tucked it behind her ear.

They were enjoying that moment very much. The morning sun softly shone on them through the windows until a thin, white cloud crossed its path and briefly cast a light shadow on the world beneath itself.

Then, he leaned on his right arm so that he wouldn't crush her underneath him and he kissed her again and again, very lightly, very gently. His teasing was never naughty, but reverent like a priest to his deity. She complied with her own secret desires by kissing him back in the same style and softly putting her hands on either of his cheeks. And when he put his left hand softly on her waist, she moaned lightly into his mouth and silently begged him to slide it down – and he pretended not to understand.

In the meantime, two of the kids from the beach, who had been hiding in Mare's wardrobe, had slightly opened one of the doors and were spying on the couple. One of them wondered what they were talking about and what they were doing. The other knew about it and blushed revealingly as soon as Shun leaned on her and they started to kiss each other.

"What's going on, dude?" The ignorant kid asked naively, whispering of course. "Why aren't they talking like they always do?"

"Don't you see it?!" The other said blushing even more, also whispering. "Gods, don't you know?! They're going to 'make love'."

"What's that good for?"

"It's good for having babies who aren't as _dumb_ as you."

In the meantime, Shun and Mare, oblivious of the two kids hiding in the wardrobe, went from kissing to snogging. Her dishevelled dark hair was spreading all over the mattress, mixing itself with his green hair at some point. She was completely losing it, especially since his chest and abs had leaned on hers.

At one point she could feel his boner, although he was trying to hide it. He didn't want to scare her. He caressed her cheeks, her arms and her waist. Unexpectedly, however, she parted her legs and pushed herself towards him. Due to that bold move on her behalf, he moaned lowly. Then, she started grinding her hips very slowly, tantalising him.

He stopped snogging her and gasped. He sank his head in the crook of her neck and breathed hard. She stopped just in case. Then, he lifted his head again to stare at her and said:

"If you do that again, I'll…" He whispered mildly angered. Then, Mare put her forefinger on his lips and spoke thus:

"Whatever it is, do it to me." She whispered rather apologetically (although she didn't feel sorry about it), surrendering to his mighty stare.

That sentence triggered the beast within him, so much so that he ruthlessly undressed her completely and sank his head between her thighs. That bold move caught her by surprise. As soon as he licked her wet folds for the first time, she arched her back and moaned once, then she gasped for air as if she had been diving under the water for too long and hopelessly yelled:

"Oooh my Gods, I love you Shun!"

* * *

And then, Mare woke up gasping and panting.

"What the _fuck_ was that about?" She thought both horney and enraged as she sat up. Her cheeks were aflame due to her unspoken desire lurking in the realm of her dreams. "Was it a dream?! What sort of dream was _that_?! I can't believe I've dreamt such a thing! Besides, the last thing I remember is being in the library with Shun… and now I'm in my room. _WTF_…!"

The sun was shining bright in that lovely Sunday morning and the birds were singing lovely tunes outside, in the garden. Exactly like in her dream… Still breathing hard, she was trying to make sense of what might've happened to her the previous evening, but she was too appalled by her recent wet dream to care about anything else in this world.

Her wet folds were still aching and throbbing in expectation. The mere movement of sitting up made the seam of her jeans brush her most intimate parts and she gasped at the touch. And she automatically thought of Shun. She was both horrified and eager – and very much tempted to repeat that movement _and that last thought._

Silence.

No one else. No sound coming from the corridor or any other room.

Alone.

Waiting… for something to happen.

There was a handwritten note on her bedside table and she kept staring at it from the corner of her eyes quite suspiciously, but she didn't make any single move to get it. It was obviously Shun's. He was gone for sure by then. He might've felt the need to write her something before leaving. He had probably already arrived to his destination by that time.

She was completely still. Wondering about _stuff_ which wasn't about that bloody note on the bedside table.

She licked her lips once.

Waiting.

Tempted…

"No one will ever know…" She thought darkly as she gently closed her eyes.

So she moved her ass again softly, only once, and the touch triggered her vocal chords as if they were a gun and she moaned feebly but freely.

It felt so _right_ and so _wrong_ at the same time that she could barely believe it.

"No one will ever know – except me." She thought darkly again.

She was amazed at how easy it was to switch off and let it flow.

"I shouldn't have these feelings for you, Shun." She thought hopelessly then. "But I can't help it. Why does this feel so _fucking_ good?"

Then, she slowly unbuttoned her blouse and took it off playfully and started to caress her skin on the borders of her dark blue bra and its straps. She ground her ass on the mattress, against the seam which was making her go nuts once more. She moaned again and then she made the straps of her bra gently slide down her arms. He caressed her bare shoulders and arms.

"Gods, that seam is driving me insane. And I need to be satisfied… Now."

Next, she unbuttoned her jeans and slowly slid a hand in her panties. And then, she whispered blushing way too much:

"Oh, Shun…"

* * *

A little later, right after cumming, she let her body fall on her bed and sighed, staring at the ceiling half undressed.

"What did I just do?" She whispered with guilt. "This _isn't _me."

Her hair was spread all over the mattress and the pillows carelessly, just like her arms. She sighed and gently closed her eyes. Her cheeks were shamelessly blushing. Although it had felt good, she was far from satisfied. She didn't fully understand why she had done it.

"Let's see what this note says." She whispered feeling angry at herself, truly believing that reading it might mean giving herself a break – but oh, it _didn't_.

As she opened the envelope and unfolded the letter, she held her breath and frowned. Still half undressed and not caring to rearrange her hair, she skimmed through the letter, which contained this heartache of a message:

**OoO**

_Dear Mare,_

_I'm awfully sorry about what happened. I'd love to tell you so personally, but since you are unconscious right now, I have no other option but to write this brief letter to you._

_Should I come back, I'll do my best to atone my fault. My behaviour was inappropriate. Wait for me until I come back, please. I promise I'll make it up to you. I have to go now._

**OoO**

Her eyes shot open as soon as she reached the end. It wasn't signed, there even wasn't any proper ending phrase like 'love,' or 'XX', or anything of the sort.

"OK… I guess." She whispered feebly.

Then, she read the letter a second time, feeling completely unsatisfied and confused, gently pulling a lock of her hair backwards because it was bothering her as her eyes madly roamed on the surface of the paper again.

"What fault is he talking about?" She thought genuinely wondering. "Is Shun feeling guilty about kissing me? Is that what he's got to atone for? By the way, why did I have that awful headache last evening? He's not mentioning anything about it. Maybe… was Shun the cause? Is that what he needs to atone for?"

She read the letter again. No clue about it. He had been too cryptic when he had written the letter.

She tried to read it again and try to jump to a conclusion. Nothing.

Was he cryptic on purpose?

"What the _fuck_?! No," She whispered in anger as she threw the letter away and jumped out of bed in a rush. "I'm not staying here waiting for you to come back! It's _me_ who should be atoning for this! This was a terrible mistake which I'm not willing to fuel anymore… This is so… _wrong_ for a time-traveller like me! Gods, what's wrong with me?!"

* * *

In the meantime, Shun and the other Bronze Saints had just arrived on Ikki's damned island. The earth beneath their feet was red. The sand on the beach was grey. The cliffs which met the roaring sea were dark blue. A skyscraper of colossal red rocks pierced the dark grey clouds in the sky. The smell of death filled their lungs and the area looked as if it had never been inhabited in its lifetime – but the guys weren't afraid.

"So…" Seiya said. "This is it."

"I had no idea this island was such an unwelcoming place." Shun said sadly.

His green eyes roamed around the area with a devastated air in them.

"What did you expect, Shun?" Shiryu asked him. "This is hell on Earth. That's what Saori and her grandfather had told us when we were little. Honestly, I had envisioned something less intimidating."

Out of the blue, a well-known member of the Black Saints, Dormantis, welcomed them from the top of a cliff nearby and motioned them to hurry up with a hand signal. None of them liked that, since it was pretty clear it was a trap or something – and yet they had no other option but to follow.

They spent half an hour just following Dormantis. His job was meant to be their guide. The path was not easy, so much so that they started to feel suspicious about what he was actually pretending. Was he deliberately making them lose their way or what? Hyoga was the first to lose his patience and shot a menacing comment at him, but Dormantis couldn't care less.

"Don't allow him to get on your nerves, Hyoga." Shun said wisely, putting a hand on his shoulder. "He's doing it on purpose. Besides, there's no way we can get lost here. It's pretty obvious Ikki will be waiting at the top of that high mountain or somewhere nearby – somewhere with the best view over the island, of course."

Shun was right and no one disagreed. A few minutes later they were greeted by a group of Black Saints who threatened to kill them all. That wasn't a surprise, really. Shun thought it was bound to happen. But what was really striking was the fact that all of those Black Saints resembled their own selves, as if they were their deadly nemesis, both physically and as far as their fighting abilities are concerned. They started to fight, although Ikki was nowhere to be seen.

"We're not here to fight against you, Black Saints!" Shun yelled at them.

"What the hell are you talking about?!" His own black nemesis shot back.

"You know we're here to find Ikki!"

"Yeah, he told us you'd say that… But first you'll have to beat us all!"

Shun frowned and thus a cruel, lengthy battle unfolded.

* * *

Back at the Foundation, while the guys were fighting on that island, Mare swiftly got dressed and went out of her bedroom. She knocked on Saori's bedroom door with impatience and shouted her name.

"I'm coming." Saori answered from the other side. "What is it, Mare? Why are you so _hectic_ this morning?"

"What the hell happened last evening?" Mare shot out to Saori as if she had the answer, but she fell silent trying to remember something, but since she couldn't, she just shrugged her shoulders at Mare. "Come on, Saori! The last thing I remember is being in the library with Shun, I got a massive headache and then I fainted. You must know something about it, don't you?"

"Yes, that's what happened to me too!" Saori answered thrilled to share the exact same experience. "Except that… I was with _Seiya_." As she whispered those last words, she blushed.

Mare just raised an eyebrow but didn't comment on it. She also refrained herself from smiling too noticeably. It was obvious that something was going on between those two.

"OK, OK,…" Mare said as calmly as she could. "Let's find Shunrei. Maybe she's got a clue about this."

Both girls went to Shunrei's bedroom and knocked wildly on the door. After a few minutes of chatting and blushing due to admitting whom they were with when the whole thing happened, Mare was fed up with it. She wasn't patient enough sometimes.

"OK, so we don't know what happened… except that the three of us got the exact same reaction." Mare concluded trying her best to be easy-going about it, but both Saori and Shunrei knew she was pissed off. "The guys just left and didn't leave a proper message. Just that good old 'wait for me until I come back' kind of crap… Gods, I _hate_ testosterone so much sometimes!"

That's when one of the servants passed by, saw them and told them what had really happened. The girls were appalled to know about the real story, about that Black Saint and his evil master plan to fuck the guys up, and about the guys' guilt as regards the girls' suffering (because if it hadn't been for their close attachment to them, that wouldn't have happened). Suddenly, Mare understood the guilt poured into the letter for her, but the phrasing was so exaggerate that she got the impression she was missing something.

Usually, her guts were right about stuff like this.

* * *

Hours went by and, one by one, those evil Black Saints were defeated one by one by the Bronze Saints. Some were killed or accidentally fell from a cliff. The guys were in more or less good shape. They obviously had some scratches and other wounds, but they didn't look very bad.

As soon as they were done fighting, Dormantis, who was the only one left and was standing idle at the time, chuckled and smirked at them.

"Before you get bored," He said darkly. "let me tell you I'm not your next toy. The game continues."

"Where's Ikki?!" Shun asked quite enraged, but still not losing it.

He had had enough of that 'game'. None of the guys thought that that was remotely funny or enjoyable.

"Don't be so eager to die, dear Shun." Dormantis said before he disappeared behind a large rock.

"Hey!" Seiya yelled enraged. "Where the hell do you think you're going?!"

"Now this is highly unexpected!" Ikki suddenly yelled angrily at our heroes from the top of a nearby cliff. "And unacceptable! I thought that that sassy girl would've come with you!"

"Ikki!" They all shouted in unison.

"The very same!" Ikki shot back playfully. "Dormantis' told me you were getting bored and got rid of those Black Saints already."

"Then send the rest of them over to us, Ikki!" Shiryu shouted with pride. "We know you've got an army of them. We can get rid of them too!"

"You didn't bring _her_ with you like I suggested, I see." Ikki said mocking them with a naughty smirk on his face. He chuckled with pride. "Couldn't you handle her?" Seeing that Shun just clenched his fists and was refraining himself from answering him. "Oh, that's a shame. _I could've handled her_, though."

Shun clenched his teeth and frowned.

"Don't you dare speak about her…" Out of the blue he whispered menacingly to his own brother.

Shun's chains reacted violently and he shot them at Ikki, who was able to stop them quite effortlessly.

"Finally! That's what I wanted to see!" Ikki was glad to know that his plan was taking full effect on his younger brother. "Now you're a warrior worth fighting against! You won't hesitate to kill me if you have the chance now."

"I still want you to realise you're _wrong_, Ikki. I still don't want to fight against you, but you leave me no other option." Shun was repeating himself, but he hadn't lost his faith in his brother yet.

"Don't patronise me, lil brother. I want to see your _real_ anger. I want to see _it_ in you: how bad it feels being hurt where it hurts the _most_…"

Silence. A very long, endless silence reigned on all of them.

"What's her name?" Ikki's voice was a husky, dark and lusty, golden trophy of pride. "_Mare_… right?" He chuckled and smirked at Shun, who couldn't believe he was actually wishing to kick his fucking ass and make him shut up no matter what. Ikki went on as proudly as before. "Dormantis, sometimes I have such a bad memory! Remind me of what you told me yesterday when you came back."

"Sure." Dormantis replied quite playfully. "I needed to find out who was dearest to all of you. Shunrei, Saori… They were obvious targets from the start."

Both Seiya and Shiryu clenched their fists and frowned, but refrained themselves from reacting yet. They let him go on speaking.

"But _who_ was dear to Shun? That wasn't too difficult either, don't get me wrong." Dormantis chuckled then and shook his head once. "But I thought it'd be funnier if I waited for some kind of… _physical_ confirmation, let's say."

Ikki giggled quite amused by this mockery.

"I saw you, Shun, _holding and kissing_ her, like _I thought you would_ because you love her and you had to leave her behind… It's so bloody romantic! Anyway,…" He went on patronisingly, seeing that Shun wasn't afraid or inhibited to let the world know he loved her, but Dormantis had an ace up his sleeve. "I know something that might make you drop that stupid, mildly indifferent look off your face, Shun. So stop pretending you expected this mockery to happen."

Dormantis was right: Shun had expected something of the sort to happen, so he was psychologically prepared.

"And what may that be, pray?" Shun asked defiantly, not buying it. He actually thought that Dormantis' threats were empty.

"That's the best bit, brother." Ikki interrupted then triumphantly. "Tell him, Dormantis."

The latter remained in silence for some seconds on purpose. He wanted to make it more dramatic.

"The previous evening, I saw…" He finally said using a very dark, naughty voice. "… _Hyoga trying to force Mare_."

"WHAT?!" Shun yelled, turning white as paper.

The air seemed to chill all of a sudden. Dark clouds were starting to gather above them.

Both Dormantis and Ikki started giggling as they waited for Shun to jump on Hyoga and cut his throat or something of the sort. Then, Shun turned his face to Hyoga as if he couldn't believe what Dormantis had just said. It couldn't be true. Obviously, he was trying to mess up with them.

"Hyoga?" Shun asked him, pushing him to speak his mind.

"I…" Hyoga blushed and broke the eye contact with Shun as soon as he could, as if ashamed. His cheeks were blushing. Then, he went on as calmly as he could and spoke thus: "I'm sorry…"

"What?!" Seiya, Shiryu and Shun exclaimed in unison, unable to believe their ears. Shun was appalled to hear that lousy confirmation of such a dirty deed.

"He _just_ wanted to prove she was able to fight. Nothing more." Dormantis went on speaking, trying to mock Hyoga with this sort of I'm-sorry-I-had-to-do-it tone of voice. He kept on making excuses for him because Hyoga didn't seem to dare to open his mouth and speak about this, so he went on: "It was not a very noble aim, but anyway. The thing is… he got _horney_ instead and pushed her to her bedroom's door… The girl's _hot_! Who can _blame_ him?" He asked joyfully. "Yes, I had been spying on you from the very beginning. Even though she was disgusted, you carried on snogging her, like you didn't care. She even told you she'd rather be hurt by you instead of fighting against you and thus proving you right about her fighting skills. She's a daring girl, indeed."

"I can't believe my ears." Shun shot darkly to Hyoga. His voice had never been so threatening. His eyes suddenly turned a darker shade of green as he stared at Hyoga. "_How could you_?!"

"Shun," Hyoga tried to explain himself apologetically. "It's true: I tried to prove she was able to fight. She could've helped us! I thought that if I had the chance to make her fight against me, she would reveal her true abilities, but then somehow… I… she… we ended up…"

"Don't you dare try to _justify_ such a deed!" Shun shouted at him angrily like never before. "You're supposed to be a Saint. You should've _behaved_ like one!"

Silence fell.

Hyoga swallowed hard.

Then, Shun suddenly remembered Mare's confusing words after he had kissed her in the library, right before passing out…

**_OoO_**

_"I'm a mess, Shun." She said with sadness. "You… just kissed me. You're going away in an hour… Plus, **something horrible** happened and I…"_

_"What? What's wrong?" He asked worried beyond doubt._

_"I didn't want to tell this to anyone else, but…" She hesitated and bit her lower lip again. "How can I say this? OMG… Let's just say that I **shouldn't **have met someone these last few days, because it's **caused me a great pain**… But I don't wanna burden you with this now. The timing is sooo bad, right, and I…"_

**_OoO_**

Shun suddenly understood. She was trying to tell him about this, but she couldn't finish. He clenched his teeth in anger.

"You had _lectured_ me just a few hours earlier and then you… _go after her_ behind my back…" Fury could be smelled from every single pore of Shun's skin. If ire was a solar system, Shun would be the sun in its centre. "Just tell me something: did you _touch_ her?"

"Please elaborate on the meaning of 'touch', lil' brother." Ikki interrupted again out of the blue. Shun tried to ignore him.

"No, I didn't force her. I just kissed her a few times." Hyoga admitted with shame. "I didn't touch her anywhere else."

Unexpectedly, Shun slowly walked up to Hyoga, who was standing right in front of a large rock on the left side of the pathway, and got closer to him apparently quite calmly. Then he punched the surface of the rock right behind Hyoga's nape (leaving a huge, round crater on it and reducing the stony material to mere dust), missing his head on purpose, and darkly whispered thus to him:

"Lie to me _or_ get any close to her again and you're _dead_."

Shun's dark green eyes were piercing Hyoga's in a menacing attitude.

"I'm not lying to you." Hyoga said seriously then.

"Good." Shun shot back dryly as he retrieved his fist from the crater.

"But I'm not going to give up." Hyoga unexpectedly said then.

"Wow!" Ikki dared to exclaim. "This is getting more interesting than I expected!"

Shun was finding the whole thing extra tough to deal with, especially due to Ikki's annoying comments. On top of that, it was obvious to him that Seiya and Shiryu felt extremely uncomfortable and didn't know how to react to this. And Hyoga's last comment was not helping in any way either.

"What did you just say?" Shun asked Hyoga as calmly as he could.

"Looks like you've got a rival, lil' brother." Ikki mocked Shun, again.

"Shut up!" Shun yelled back at his brother angrily.

He was fed up with his interruptions already. Therefore, he ran up to Ikki and started to beat the hell out of him. Ikki didn't see this one coming (nor did the rest of the guys) and he didn't have time to react at all. This wasn't the 'normal' Shun everybody was used to. Something had changed.

While Shun was kicking Ikki's ass, Seiya and Shiryu helped him and Hyoga felt relieved for a few minutes, since the focus had been drawn onto someone else. Eventually, they managed to defeat all the Black Saints and Ikki somehow went back to normal right after a strange mind-controlling wave could be detected. It seemed to spring from far away and it reached into Ikki's head for a fraction of a second, somehow allowing him to be his dear own self again. When it was over, Shun was relieved to see that Ikki was dumbfounded but glad to see him, but he couldn't even remember what was going on or what had happened to him.

"What was that?" Shiryu asked confused. "Any ideas?"

"It seems like a mind-controlling wave retreating from his head." Seiya answered. "At least Ikki's back to normal now. Ikki, you don't remember anything about a golden armour that we need to recover, do you?" Ikki shook his head in denial. "Great. Don't worry. We can work it out, I guess."

"Only someone with a great source of power could do this." Shun concluded seriously.

"Especially from far away, which seems to be the case." Shiryu added.

"Where did it come from?" Seiya asked trying to think hard.

* * *

"Greece!" Mare told Saori and Shunrei with too much eagerness.

"Stop it, Mare!" Saori commanded quite angrily, standing on the doorway blocking Mare's way out of the Foundation. "Don't you dare move an inch, miss! I'm deadly serious." She pointed a finger at her as if she was an angry mother.

"I said I'm going to Greece and no one will stop me." Mare said firmly but lovingly. "Not even you, Saori. I'm sorry."

"Let the Saints handle this!" She insisted. "Aren't you afraid? Are you insane?"

Shunrei was hesitating and didn't dare to say a thing.

"I felt the mind wave!" Mare insisted too. "It's my mission! I came here to fix something, remember? You already know I can't give you any details about this, but this was precisely one of the clues I had to search for in order to get to my target. Now… I've got a job to do, so step aside, Saori. Please. Shunrei, the same goes for you."

Saori started to tremble and hesitated, but eventually she let Mare go.

"What should I tell the guys when you're back?" Saori asked Mare once she crossed the threshold.

"You should tell Seiya that you _care_ for him… a lot. That's for starters." Mare said and then she smiled and blinked an eye at her.

"Mare…" Saori said.

"Now seriously, don't tell them where I've gone."

"Why?"

"It's my job, Saori. Not theirs. Believe me." Mare said as she turned around to leave.

"And… what should I tell Shun?"

"Tell him…" Mare said sadly. "… that I was _wrong_."


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary**: Shun and the other Saints come back after their training only to realise that the competition organized by Saori wasn't exactly as they had envisioned, including a mysterious guest/singer/fighter called Mare. She's got a mission of her own which might collide against theirs. OC/Shun

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Saint Seiya. I only own my OC, Mare.

* * *

**Chapter 4: Trust chess**

"What do you mean 'She's gone'?!" Shun desperately asked, as if the air had failed to play any proper sound on his vocal chords.

They were all standing in the hallway and Saori just sighed, briefly closed her eyes and then she softly bit her lower lip. The guys had just come back to the Foundation, bringing Ikki with them. Both Saori and Shunrei were welcoming them back with the greatest of reliefs in their hearts.

"OK," Saori gave up quite easily. "I assume that Mare already knew that I'd tell on you the second you came back, so…"

And yes, she _did_. When Mare told her she was going to Greece, she already knew that Saori wouldn't be able to keep the secret, but she didn't really mind.

"Saori, please…" Shun begged, coming closer to Saori. "I can't waste any more seconds here… I need to go. Tell me where."

"She's in Greece right now." Saori said sadly.

"What the -?!" Seiya exclaimed. This info was striking home – well, the place which had been his home for the last few years of his life.

"Greece?" Shun asked dumbfounded.

"She felt a… - what did she say it was? - a _mind-wave_ or something." Saori went on as if she was apologising. "She said she _had_ to go and track it down, that she couldn't wait any more."

Shun made his way to the door and was ready to jump into action on his own when suddenly Saori rushed right behind him and called him back and said:

"Shun! Before you go, there's something else!"

"What is it?"

"Actually, I don't know exactly." She spoke calmly as she came closer to him. She didn't want the rest of the guys to listen to that because it was rather personal, so her voice was just a whisper. "Mare just said that this was her job, not yours, and that… – I hope it makes sense to you, because I can't understand it – she was _wrong_. Maybe it refers to something in the note you left for her."

Shun frowned because he didn't grasp the hidden meaning of those words.

"What note?" He asked with too much curiosity and frowning.

* * *

Lovely weather, warm beaches and enchanting ruins of golden times gone by – a place many people would call Athens, Mare called it paradise.

"Good Gods!" She thought feeling thrilled like never before. "This is the greatest place on Earth to go on holiday! I mean it: every place has something special which bewitches you, call it X, but these beaches are splendid!"

As she was thinking that, she was leisurely strolling along the beach, shoes on her hands. The soft wind was gently combing her dark hair. The sand was pure and white, nicely caressing the skin of her feet. The sun was unforgivably shining over her head. Her smile was shot at the watery horizon on her side, far away in that lovely background, omnipresent as if it had all the answers to all unanswered questions in the world.

"I should attend to more urgent matters than my 'holidays', though." She thought with sadness.

Then she stopped walking altogether. Standing on the beach, she just seemed a normal girl, a regular tourist spending a week in a foreign country, enjoying the sun and the warmth from the Mediterranean – but she was much more than that.

It was only yesterday when Shun had left to find Ikki and there she was, young Mare, in Athens, because she could finally spot the source of the time breach she was meant to fix. She wasn't in the mood to wait for the guys to return, as Shun had suggested to her in the letter he left.

While they were on that damned island fighting, at first Mare was trying hard to concentrate, to guess what was going on. She had great meditation and aura-spotting skills, she could detect someone else's aura and know if they were fine or in trouble. Therefore, as soon as the fight against Ikki reached its turning point, Mare was able to detect the mighty source of energy which enabled Ikki to go back to being normal – the same kind of aura which had originated the time breach before she arrived there. It wasn't the aura of any of the guys or their current enemies on the island – surprisingly it sprang from far away, from Greece, from Athens in particular… Mare directed all her efforts to follow its traces and, guess what, it lead her directly to Pope Ares' palace.

At first, Mare was amazed to discover that the very same Pope was the culprit. But she soon shook that thought away and decided to do something about it, on her own. That was her mission. Surely Seiya could tell her some valuable information about Athens or the Pope that she might need then, but she wasn't willing to share who she was with anyone else. Seiya would ask her too many questions… She had already (but partially) told Saori about it – and that was more than enough. Mare had powerful regrets as regards that mistake – yes, she considered it a mistake. Anyway, it was too late to fix it. At least Saori hadn't told anyone about her job or who she really was: a time traveller. She had a difficult job ahead of her, but she wasn't scared. She had mixed feelings about the guys, Saori, Shunrei… and Shun. If she fixed the time breach, the complete timeline would be rewritten and that would never have happened. They would _never_ have met. Mare would remember. The others wouldn't, though.

This would just be a _recollection of something that never happened_.

However, that meant a clean slate. No mistakes would survive. That seemed to be enough for Mare… but then she felt weak as she suddenly thought of Shun. She blushed revealingly, but that didn't make her stop thinking about her mission:

"But if I don't fix it," Mare thought darkly. "… the beach will grow bigger and bigger and it'll eventually engulf the whole timeline and destroy the world as we know it."

The Greater Good, right? The ulterior motive for which a hero must be willing to die.

She sighed once and got determined to do something about it, even though it meant that Shun would never remember her. That's when she started walking to Pope Ares' palace. She put her shoes on and went past the ruins, where lots of tourists were joyfully chatting and taking photos. They were obviously ignorant of what was really happening there.

As soon as she reached some narrow cliffs, a group of three minor Saints in training who were spying on her decided to make themselves visible to her. They started whistling at her in a quite sexist way. She frowned. She always did that when something like that happened.

"No visitors are allowed on the premises! Go back to where you come from, _chick_." One of them yelled at her unwelcomingly, but then he changed the mood and whispered thus: "Although we could make an exception for you…"

"I know that and I don't fucking care, luv." She yelled back with pride. "So go back to where _you_ come from, _dick_."

"Great! The young lady's got a blade for a tongue!" Another said trying to mock both his companion and Mare.

"Then she must be _more careful_ with it, lest she should cut herself with it!" The first one shot back at his mate. Then, he stared back at her menacingly and spoke threateningly thus: "And _you_, _cunt_, you'll wish you had never been born!"

"The usual stuff, then." She said with pride and smirked, knowing exactly what to do.

Not far from where they were, Aioria, the Leo Gold Saint – and a very handsome young man –, was witnessing the whole event from a distance. He was intrigued by a sudden, excruciating yelling and by the charming sound of a female voice in a place where usually the female sex was not precisely abundant, namely, the Sanctuary. There were _some_ women fighters, of course, but they were elusive and aggressive – sometimes more than men, even.

When he saw the young lady who was responsible for that mess (well, the three minor Saints were to blame for that, actually), he became dumbstruck. While she was fighting those idiots, she bewitched him completely – so much so that he couldn't believe that strange sensation within his chest, that wild banging of his heart and that unbearable thirst in his mouth.

"This young lady is beyond amazing!" Aioria thought with excitement while witnessing the entire fight. "Those movements, her agility, her boldness… She must've undergone some kind of training, but she's clearly not a Saint. I'm impressed. I've never seen anything like this before. I wonder what she's doing here…"

The combat didn't last for long, since Mare was way smarter and stronger than those idiots. With a bold smirk on her face, she defeated them, left them unconscious and went forward to her destination. Aioria hid so that she wouldn't spot him.

She found a small forest ahead. Never hesitating one bit, she entered the forest completely unaware that a couple of eager eyes were following her all the time from up above the surrounding cliffs. Unexpectedly, though, she encountered a beautiful water spring and small lake on a clearing and decided to have a break. She was mildly tired. After all, the sun was shining unforgivably that day and the fight, despite being a piece of cake, had almost worn her out. Thus, she decided to chill out and have a quick bath.

In the meantime, Aioria was too curious and decided to follow her into the woods, since he could no longer properly spy on her because of the trees and vegetation. His jaw dropped down in sheer amazement as soon as he saw her naked, but he swiftly hid behind a huge tree because she was getting her clothes back already. He cursed himself for being far and having wasted those precious minutes when she was having a bath – but he shook his head and tried to shy away from the lusty thought. Somewhere at the back of his mind, there was a voice complaining about it and he blushed wildly as he stole one last glimpse of her goddess-like, gorgeous body. Her wet, dark hair was dripping little water drops on her skin, which were gently kissing it on their way down. Her moist lips were tempting like a red, silk-like, wild flower. He noted that she was extremely foxy when she was only wearing her jeans and her bra – but that heavenly view didn't last for long.

In a couple of seconds, she got fully dressed again and was ready to move on to the Temple of Aries, the first of many others which were guarded by the Gold Saints.

"Somehow," Mare thought with great determination as she started walking towards her destination. "I must find a way to convince at least a Gold Saint that there's something weird going on here, something related to the Pope. The first will be Aries, of course. Ideally, I should enter the Pope's palace and search for him (or the breach) myself, but… I can't. I need the trust from an insider. The thing is _how_ can I convince a Gold Saint to trust me on this one? The rules are clear: no one must enter the Pope's palace unless they beat all the Gold Saints. Hell, yeah, I can fight, but I'm not _that_ good… I need to be a real smartass now. The Pope is their leader, they trust him with their lives and I'm just a nosey foreigner to them. I'm going to need some evidence to prove I'm right. But _what_ exactly? Maybe the last mind-controlling wave can… Did the Gold Saints notice it? If so, I still got a chance. Or should I tell them my story?"

Soon enough she exited the forest and Aries' household could already be seen from afar. Mare smiled at herself and was confident as regards her abilities to get her goal.

"Nice job you did back there!" A masculine, deep but joyful voice startled her.

Out of the blue, a tall, light-brown-haired, glorious Gold Saint was standing in front of her in the middle of the path, smiling to her. He was Aioria, who had decided to make himself visible. He couldn't resist it anymore. She was mildly taken aback, basically because his voice was one of a kind. It wasn't the typical velvet-like voice, but it was extremely attracting, though – like a moth is attracted to a burning light. On top of that, his well-built body was second to no other she'd ever seen.

"Who are you?" Mare asked point-blank, no undertone. The second she saw his golden armour, she thought she needed to be nicer and smarter than ever.

"I hate stereotypical conversations like this but I think I'll risk it this once: I _should_ ask you the same question." He said rather amused. His brown eyes were genuinely soft on her. "Who are _you_, miss?"

"Fair enough." She answered in a heartbeat. "My name is Mare and I'm a traveller."

"There are no touristic monuments this way, Mare." The Gold Saint said seriously as he crossed his arms over his well-built chest. "But you already know that, don't you? You're not a tourist." He smirked at her.

"I bet you could tell by the way I kicked their asses." She dared to reply, smirking back at him.

"Correct." He chuckled once and proceeded. "I'm afraid that visitors are not allowed here. You'll tell me what you want, miss. Then, we'll see what I'll do with you."

His command felt like a thorn in her ears. Gods, she hated it when men spoke to her like that, so imposing but trying to sound nice at the same time.

"I _will_ tell you. It's not a secret, actually." She said joyfully, trying to shield her actual opinion about the matter.

"You will?" He asked as he raised an eyebrow.

"By the tone of your voice and your poor choice of words, I got the impression that you want to _force_ the truth out of me. There's absolutely no need for that." She managed to make a good impression with those last words and attitude. Her smile was gentle and true, so much so that he was taken aback. He didn't expect such a degree of sympathy from a stranger. She wasn't scared or anything of the sort. Usually, everyone feared the sight of a Gold Saint. No one dared to speak to them unless they were prompted to do so. However, this young lady was displaying no hint of fear whatsoever.

"Good! This is my chance." Mare thought with hope while she was smiling to him. "I've already peaked his interest in me. He's seen me defeat those guys and now he's amazed at my gentleness and straightforwardness. I need to build his trust in me. Game on!"

"Excuse me," Mare went on, this time orally. "can I at least know your name, please?"

"My name is Aioria, young lady." He swiftly answered, gently and straightforwardly. His pose relaxed. That was a good sign, or so she thought. "I'm the Leo Gold Saint."

"Nice to meet you, Aioria." She went on trying to outsmart herself. "I'll be brief. I assume you may have other matters to attend to." Formality and politeness could be a good way of dealing with him, bearing in mind that, as a Gold Saint, he surely must be used to being treated like a superior being due to his rank. "I was on my way to the Temple of Aries because I needed to speak with a Gold Saint about an impending issue. I never expected to meet another before I reached his door, actually."

"An impending issue?" Aioria repeated with curiosity.

"Have you noticed a threatening mind-wave recently?" She asked him with concern in her eyes. "This is the reason I'm here."

"I did, actually." He answered mildly worried.

"I know that I can't visit the Pope." She added as if she was apologising. "It's out of the question and I totally get it, but someone _should_ definitely deal with this. I gather that someone is taking care of this, right? I mean, I don't want to be rude or anything, but I think…"

"The Pope is dealing with it himself." Aioria suddenly said. He lied and she knew it.

"Are you sure, Aioria?" She asked staring directly into his eyes with an air of mild disbelief and a threatening, sarcastic ambiguity. He voice suddenly grew huskier and darker as she spoke thus: "I _felt_ it. It made a good man become a dark shadow of his own self. He is a Bronze Saint who was _made_ to act unjustly, like an evil foot soldier for God knows what dark reason I can't fathom. At least not yet. He came back to normal once the mind-wave was over. It was a massive aura of evil, coming _straight_ from the Pope's palace."

"What are you suggesting, Mare?" The mere mention of her name made the whole question seem to soften completely and to belong to a begging child. Even though he was an experienced warrior, his voice and attitude were weak in front of her. This amazed her, she wasn't expecting that reaction.

"I'm deeply worried! That's what I'm saying." She said as if trying to restraint a panic attack. It was genuine even though she was trying to win this trust chess game. "What if-?"

She didn't dare to finish her question. She aimlessly waved her arms on either side of her body and eventually she crossed them over her chest with delicacy to imply that she was desperate and that she didn't know what to do. She assumed Aioria must be a good man – and he was. He was a true gentleman and currently his face could only display concern for those who were more fragile than him and his vows as a Gold Saint. His frown got stern in a chivalric way.

"I haven't noticed _anyone_ doing _anything_ about it, Aioria." She whispered darkly. "I would've known. I've come here against my better judgment to do something about it. It's the least I can do."

"Are you saying that the Pope could be to blame for this? You could be executed just for implying that, Mare." Aioria's voice was stern and deep, but meant to comfort her – and she knew it.

"Does anyone else who lives under his own roof hold such a huge source of power?" Her question was a rather incriminating argument, but it was uttered softly and with great concern.

Then, she bit her lower lip as if regretting having uttered that indirect accusation. Suddenly she noticed that his eyes were heavily fixed on her lips, but _not_ in an evaluation mode, as if he was trying to decipher whether she was being honest or not. Actually, they were loitering on them, just enjoying the view. She immediately blushed a bit and dropped her gaze to the floor. She didn't see that one coming. She only wanted to be nice to him, to display her concern; but not to make him fancy her.

Unexpectedly, Aioria gently closed his eyes for a couple of seconds and clenched his teeth. Mare looked back at him and was taken aback by what she saw. Something was wrong. Really wrong. His current sorrowful expression was heart-breaking. Somehow it was affecting her more than she was willing to admit.

On top of that, she couldn't help but swallowing hard when her mind admitted that his jaw and clenched teeth were the most sexy, appealing sight she had seen in a couple of days. A pang of guilt made her remember about Shun and their unspoken and probably inexistent commitment. He loved her and she… cared about him a great deal… she was even willing to masturbate thinking of him. That topic made her additionally uneasy.

"Mare, I…" Aioia began as if he was going to confess a crime. "I've recently met a couple of people who have also insisted on the fact that I should not trust the Pope. Actually, it was only a few hours ago."

He had met Seiya and Saori and they tried to prove that she was Athena and that the Pope was evil to the core. Now, Aioria had just returned from his mission and the whole issue was slapping his face again… with a beautiful woman in the mix. The hesitation within his mind was making him extremely uneasy. He wasn't allowed to _question_ the Pope – he was meant to _protect_ him and the goddess Athena! Nevertheless, the evidence was clearly pointing in his direction.

"I haven't had time to double-check the evidence or speak to the Pope about this, but –" He cut his own trail of speech, but he decided to be brave and went on thus: "Honestly, I'm starting to doubt about the Pope's innocence, too. Therefore, I'm going to deal with this myself."

"What are you going to do?" Mare asked worried.

"I'm going to visit him and speak to him on the matter." He said calmly, staring directly into her lovely eyes. "I'll ask him directly. My direct accusations may sentence me to death, but I always fight for what it's worth."

She blushed. Those words could've made her swoon.

"May I help you?" She offered. "I'll do anything to –"

"I must refuse and you know why." Aioria answered with care, almost whispering. Then, he got closer to her and held her right hand in his right in front of him as he spoke thus: "You can't come with me. The rules must be honoured."

Mare understood his reasons and didn't fight it, although she was actually hoping to use her offer to come and help as an excuse to get closer to the Pope – and fix the breach, of course.

Then, Aioria gently brushed his lips on the smooth skin of her hand… An innocent kiss placed on the hand of a lawful, brave maiden. She blushed again and he saw it.

"Good luck then, Aioria." She whispered back.

"Will you be waiting here when I come back?" He asked willing to hear a confirmation from her unattainable lips. That question caught her by surprise.

"I will, _if_ you do." She softly agreed, but quite sadly at the same time.

"By Athena, I swear I _will_." He uttered with devotion.

And thus, he left her standing there on her own.

* * *

"I'm impressed!" Aioria thought as he left Mare behind and headed towards the Pope's palace. "I've never met anyone like her. Not anyone dares to enter this area, let alone straightforwardly admit they're here to speak to a Gold Saint about such thorny issues. Besides, she's gorgeous… I could drop dead with one single wink of those eyelashes."

A few minutes later, his presence was announced to the Pope and he was made to come in. He had hardly ever had any visitors in the last few years, but the Gold Saints and the servants knew about his many whims and caprices: gold embroiderings on curtains and cushions and gold furniture, lush gardens, extravagant delicatessen, wine and all sorts of ale, even women. No Pope had ever asked for so much comfort and superficial belongings. In spite of that, none ever questioned him. They just couldn't. The Pope was the closest one to the goddess Athena (or so it was meant to be) – and that was the law. His commands could not be ignored, disobeyed or questioned.

That's why Aioria had an impossible task ahead of him. He knew he could die if he didn't handle the matter with great care.

Thus, Aioria was introduced to the Pope as he entered his living room. This room was fully decorated in black: black furniture, curtains, marble, sofas, coffee tables, cushions. There was a large bouquet of black roses in a vase.

"Aioria," The Pope began rather majestically, happy to see him. "I'm glad to see you. Please, have a seat! I'll order something to drink for you. What would you like?"

"I'm not thirsty, Sir. But thank you nonetheless." Aioria spoke very formally and seriously.

"May I call for… something else… that's not a drink?" The Pope was implying a woman. Or women.

"Young miss Mare…" Aioria thought immediately. That first thought was like a gunshot: swift, precise, full of guilt. His mind was betraying him. "…and sparing my life, too." His last thought amazed him, though: how come had he thought about a young woman he barely knew first and then his life? Since when his life came second after a stranger? (A beautiful stranger, however.)

"No, thank you, Sir." Aioria went on speaking after clearing his throat. "I have an urgent matter to discuss with you."

"OK, then." The Pope said rather bored. "Speak."

"I didn't kill Seiya, as you commanded." Aioria stated mildly ashamed.

"Failing in a mission is no big deal. We will have another chance in the future, I'm quite sure of that." The Pope was in a good mood, which was rather odd.

"Are you sure, Sir?" Aioria didn't fully understand the Pope's willingness to accept failure.

"Is that all you wanted to discuss, Aioria?"

"Actually, no. I wanted to state my reasons so as to not killing Seiya."

"Oh!" The Pope exclaimed faking his disappointment. "So you didn't fulfil my orders not because you couldn't, but because you _didn't want to_, am I right?"

"That's not exactly what I meant. I…"

"Excuses!" The Pope was being dragged out of boredom and into rage. "You shall not disobey me again, young man! Do you understand?!"

"Seiya has introduced me to Saori, a bold young woman who claims to be Athena." Aioria went on trying to explain himself. "I've seen her abilities, Sir. She actually _is_ Athena."

"How dare you?! _Blasphemy_!" The Pope was officially pissed off. "Don't you understand that your words may trigger your impending death?!"

"Then, show me to Athena." Aioria stated clearly and mildly defiantly. He believed he was right and that was giving him enough strength to carry on. "She's meant to live here, in your palace. Let me _see_ her. Let me _talk_ to her."

"Nonsense! You shall not –"

"No one has ever seen her or heard of her in the last few years!" Aioria cut the Pope's speech. "It's been more than a decade even! I _need_ proof that she –"

"A Gold Saint _doesn't_ need any proof of Athena's existence!" The Pope yelled. "How the hell do you think you are?! What authority do you think you have to ask for this? 'Seeing her'? 'Talking to her'? You should be ashamed of what you say! That young girl that you've met today, this Athena (you say), is a poser, you idiot!"

"My brother's armour shielded Seiya to defend her and has chosen their side to fight against me!" Aioria added more obvious facts into the argument. "She _must_ be Athena! Who am I to doubt that?"

"It's obvious! You have been fooled!" The Pope kept denying those accusations.

"And last but not least, I wasn't the only one to feel a threatening mind-wave across the globe!" Aioria was pushing it, but _hell_, he was _right_. The fact that the Pope was royally pissed off and didn't argue back using a valid argument to defend himself proved it. Aioria went on: "I'm told a Bronze Saint was brainwashed to act on behalf of evil! And it was springing from this very building! Something's going on and I demand to know what exactly!"

"Fair enough."

The Pope became quiet all of a sudden. Aioria had a weird feeling which he couldn't shake off.

"Sir, my apologies for my straightforwardness… I didn't mean to…"

"It's not a big deal, really." The Pope cut his speech rather nonchalantly as he turned around and served a glass of wine for himself.

With a snap of his fingers, a strong mind-protection barrier was erected around the room, shielding both of them from the outside world. Then, the Pope turned around to face Aioria and smirked like the devil himself.

"If trust was a strategy game like chess, you played awfully, young man."


End file.
